Whereas on the previous disc of music by David Gompper (b1954) that I reviewed (3/19) the three works were all single-movement designs, on this successor it is the number two that predominates. Both concertos fall into two broad spans of music (though the second part of the Double Bass Concerto is subdivided into two), and the concluding work, Moonburst, is the second work in a short orchestral series of compositional studies.

There are otherworldly aspects, of varying sorts, to the three works, best illustrated by the movement titles. The two movements of the Cello Concerto (2019) are named ‘Mnemosyne’ and ‘Lethe’ respectively, literally memory and forgetfulness. The concerto is concerned with recall: the material of ‘Mnemosyne’ – a vivid and hectic allegro, with much furious activity – becomes fractured and disconnected in ‘Lethe’, despite the increasingly impassioned attempts of the soloist (the superb Timothy Gill) to ‘remember’. The Double Bass Concerto is one of several recent works based on the mathematics of the Farey sequence, though here also the stages of an eclipse, first ‘Penumbra’ (with a striking evocation of Baily’s beads at the very opening) and the conjoined pair ‘Umbra – Antumbra’ evoking the shadows that follow in the wake of the light. Volkan Orhon is remarkably agile as the soloist on an instrument not normally noted for being nimble.

Curiously, Moonburst (2018) is here described as ‘the second of a two-movement set’ with Sunburst, whereas previously it was to be part of a triptych, the third panel being the as-yet-unwritten Starburst; it is unclear whether this last-planned will still form part of the design. In any event, Moonburst carries on where Sunburst left off, a nicely calculated study in sonority, albeit a touch more smoothly. The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under Emmanuel Siffert once again play this tricky and complex music with consummate professionalism and, once more, Naxos’s sound is exemplary.