Here’s an exceedingly welcome anthology from Lyrita. Set down in Cardiff’s Hoddinott Hall over three days in December 2013, it features premiere recordings of three cello concertos of uncommon eloquence, compelling rigour and genuine staying power. Each was fashioned for (and two bear a dedication to) that indefatigable champion of British music, Raphael Wallfisch, whose characteristically assured and deeply felt advocacy is matched by a lively and committed response from the BBC National Orchestra of Wales under William Boughton.

John Joubert (who turns 88 on March 20) completed his masterly Concerto in Two Movements for cello and chamber orchestra in 2011. It’s an urgently expressive, impeccably crafted and entrancingly resourceful canvas, full of sharply memorable invention, and whose combination of songful ardour and lucidity of thought put me in mind of Kenneth Leighton. Scarcely less invigorating is the concerto by Christopher Wright (b1954). Cast in three linked movements, it’s a gutsy, tersely argued and strongly communicative creation that grew out of the composer’s instinctive reactions to the summer riots in England during August 2011; admirers of Richard Arnell (Wright’s composition teacher) and William Alwyn should lose no time in making its acquaintance. The disc’s substantial centrepiece comprises Robert Simpson’s exceptionally powerful 1991 concerto. This proved to be his final orchestral offering and takes the shape of a theme and 11 variations; rest assured, the sublimely organic, typically questing and effortlessly inevitable way that Simpson handles his nourishing material makes for riveting listening. Vivid sound and helpfully detailed annotation by Paul Conway add to the considerable appeal of this rewarding issue.