The Scelsi conundrum is fully on display in this brightly recorded compilation of compositions involving the flute. The good news is that the most substantial item, the 24-minute Tetratkys (1959), is an excellent example of Scelsi’s ability to work more expansively and allusively than in the kind of constrained yet intensely dramatic rhetoric heard here in Ko-Lho (1976) for flute and clarinet.

In Ko-Lho the two instruments seem to be struggling to achieve a modicum of independence while limiting their materials to the most basic elements of interval and rhythm. In Tetratkys the solo flute inhabits more rhapsodic, even Romantic regions – especially in the last of its four sections. Moreover, Scelsi almost entirely avoids that tendency to ramble in quasi-improvisatory style that appears in several of the disc’s shorter pieces, such as Hyxos for flute, gongs and cowbells, where the vibrant punctuations of the percussion make the modal monodies they interrupt seem relatively bland. As for the trilogy for piccolo and oboe Rucke di Guck (the weird title refers to the cooing of doves in a Hans Andersen tale), the energy released in the duetting interactions risks sounding increasingly aimless even when the individual movements last less than four minutes.

The virtuosity of flautist Claudia Giottoli is remarkable, and she provides useful annotations in the booklet, not deterred by what she describes as the music’s ‘lack of direction’. Such an alleged ‘lack’ is, inevitably, relative: in many ways, Scelsi’s music is most appealing when it can be felt to move forward, as in Tetratkys, the jovial final movement of the Suite for flute and clarinet or the late Krishna e Rada for flute and piano. Here this most enigmatic of composers speaks with an unaffectedly personal accent.