Add Celso Garrido-Lecca (b1926) to the long list of Latin American composers whose music deserves our attention. I’d heard his kaleidoscopic Second String Quartet (1988) thanks to a recording by the Cuarteto Latinoamericano (New Albion), which showed the Peruvian composer to be a master of harmonic subtlety and colouristic detail. This Naxos disc presents a fuller portrait, with four orchestral pieces that display the same craftsmanship along with an unabashed melodicism that should have wide appeal.

Laudes II (1994) is perhaps closest in style to the quartet. Inspired by an aphorism from Lao-Tzu about the Tao, its musical materials are lean and angular, and its spirit is largely contemplative. The three movements each unfold rather like free-flowing variations, suggesting a stream-of consciousness-like flow of ideas.

The disc’s three other works are folkloric and reflect Garrido-Lecca’s cultural roots. Both the Danzas populares andinas (‘Andean Folk Dances’) and Retablos sinfónicos (‘Symphonic Tableaux’) from the early 1980s wrap folkloric elements in elegant, understated settings. There’s something Ravelian about the piquancy of Garrido-Lecca’s harmonies and the delicacy of his orchestration. Listen, for instance, to the fourth of the Danzas, with its gently aching harmonies, or to the Daphnis-like sunrise that’s evoked in the third of the Retablos. Even when writing for strings alone, as in the delightful Suite peruana (‘Peruvian Suite’) of 1986, the composer provides a wealth of colour while maintaining textural clarity. This suite is gentle, welcoming music, and anyone with a soft spot for, say, Holst’s St Paul’s Suite, should take to it straight away.

Miguel Harth-Bedoya leads us to the tender heart of Garrido-Lecca’s music. The Norwegian Radio Orchestra play with greater focus and rhythmic security than the Forth Worth Symphony but all of the performances provide ample pleasure, and the recorded sound is clear and aptly atmospheric.