The American concert band has a sound distinctively its own and a virtuosity that has attracted mainstream composers since the 1950s: Hindemith (B flat Symphony, 1951), Roy Harris and Morton Gould (sesquicentennial West Point Symphonies, 1952), Vincent Persichetti, whose 14 band works include his Sixth Symphony (1956), to name a few. GIA’s three releases contain almost exclusively 21st-century compositions – only Corigliano’s Elegy (1965 – from an off-Broadway musical about Helen of Troy), given here in Christopher Anderson’s 2012 arrangement, and Jindřich Feld’s delightful Divertimento (2000) predate our millennium.

The ‘Discoveries’ disc centres on Adam Schoenberg’s popular American Symphony (2011, given here in Master Sergeant Donald Patterson’s virtuoso 2014 transcription for the US President’s Marine Band) which, for all the razzmatazz of the concluding ‘Stars, Stripes and Celebrations’, has many passages of subtle gravity and instrumental finesse. Feld’s Divertimento and Paul Dooley’s engaging multi-movement Masks and Machines (2015) are, with Michael Daugherty’s Rio Grande (2015 – no connection to Constant Lambert), the pick of this disc. There is much to enjoy in Jun Nagao’s 2013 mash-up of The Planets (originally for saxophone quartet) and John Mackey’s Sasparilla (2005), with its drunken bassoons suggesting there’s more to root beer than this reviewer supposed.

Mackey (a student of Corigliano and Erb, no relation to Steven Mackey) dominates ‘Inventions’, the major work being his symphony Wine-Dark Sea (2014). Based on three key episodes in Homer’s Odyssey, it is a double-edged, not altogether sympathetic portrait of Odysseus. The central ‘Immortal Thread, So Weak’ (dealing with Calypso’s desertion) is beautifully composed, as is the concluding ‘The Attention of Souls’, a Totentanz set in Hades. The Ringmaster’s March (the finale to a larger suite omitted here) is trifling by comparison, a Shostakovich-like homage to the circus. Daugherty’s Winter Dreams (2015) is of greater moment, a touching, well-made tribute to the artist Grant Wood, and his famous painting American Gothic. Even finer is Bruce Broughton’s In the World of Spirits (2011), a work of real poetry. Broughton is well known as a composer for film and TV, as are John Williams – his For the President’s Own (2013) makes a breezy concert opener – and Austrian-born Gernot Wolfgang, whose Three Short Stories (2001, arrangements of a viola-and-piano duo) inhabit the world of Leonard Bernstein and Lalo Schifrin in a vibrant musical shindig.

The Mackey performances are recycled in GIA’s two-CD set, which provides a highly listenable composer portrait. It is hard not to be overwhelmed by the sheer force of Mackey’s faster writing, especially when played with such verve as in High Wire (2012; another brief, but more exhilarating, circus tribute), Redline Tango (2005, with its darker shades of Piazzolla), Undertow (2008) and the marvellous Kingfishers Catch Fire (2007), the thrilling finale of which really does ignite. Foundry (2011) is fun but seems a tad underpowered despite its dozen percussionists. Mackey’s more serious side surfaces in Hymn to a Blue Hour (2010), Sheltering Sky (2012), (Redacted) (2013) and Kingfishers’ first panel, all very contrasted, slower-paced works. Different again are Strange Humours (2006), transcribed from an original for string quartet and djembe, the incandescent Aurora Awakes (2009), built on material from U2 and Holst’s First Suite, and The Frozen Cathedral (2012), a mellifluous scherzo-cum-tone poem depicting Mount McKinley in Alaska. Overall, Mackey’s polyglot style at its best occasionally reminds me of McPhee, Mennin, Schuman and the brass works of Robert Simpson – high praise indeed.

It might seem like an afterthought to finally mention the North Texas Wind Symphony, who under Eugene Migliaro Corporon’s manifestly inspiring direction play throughout with unstinting verve, commitment and a thrilling virtuosity that puts many a more famous ensemble to shame. The Showa Wind Symphony’s three live performances directed by Shintaro Fukumoto show Mackey has an international reach and that Japanese concert band standards are also very high. GIA’s terrific sound helps make all three issues compelling listening, with many real gems and no turkeys. Buy and enjoy!