Recorded in September 2022 (the concluding Cello Concerto at a live concert in The Bridgewater Hall), early into Dobrinka Tabakova’s year-long spell as Artist-in-Residence with the Hallé Orchestra, this is a marvellous collection of a broad range of her output. The earliest is her Viola Concerto (2004), written for her friend and regular collaborator Maxim Rysanov – the soloist here – and the most recent the Earth Suite (2018 20), the three movements of which were composed in a previous residency with the BBC Concert Orchestra and premiered separately by them as stand-alone works. The opening item, Orpheus’ Comet (2017), a ‘celebration’ also composed for the BBC Concert Orchestra, highlights one of Tabakova’s abiding interests, the music of the past. A five-minute toccata, it is based on the ubiquitous opening fanfare from Monteverdi’s Orfeo, which only emerges at the close; the result is one of her most appealing inspirations.

The two concertos show a different side to her musical make-up. Both are complementary cousins composed for musical friends and fine examples of music sounding straightforward – in being easily assimilable by an audience – yet highly virtuosic to perform. Rysanov, who conducted the first recording of the Cello Concerto (2008) with Kristina Blaumane on Tabakova’s breakthrough album ‘String Paths’, is ideal, his interpretation formed from two decades of experience playing this alternately contemplative and vigorous music. Guy Johnston, by contrast, brings some fresh perspectives to the Cello Concerto – its central movement, ‘Longing’, is a particular favourite with audiences if the number of YouTube videos is any indication – slightly swifter in places than Blaumane’s but equally expressive.

Tabakova writes in the booklet of her ‘wonderful connection’ with conductor Delyana Lazarova – coincidentally also born in Plovdiv – and the fruits of this are manifest in Lazarova’s sure direction of the largest work here, the Earth Suite. Scored for full orchestra, its three movements ‘Tectonic’, ‘Pacific’ and (partly to celebrate Henry Wood’s 150 birthday) ‘Timber and Steel’ were inspired by ‘the overwhelming force of Nature’. Tabakova states that she may yet add to the work, but this orchestral triptych is a highly varied and involving work, compellingly performed by the Hallé Orchestra, especially in the vast reaches of the central ‘Pacific’, and superbly recorded. Recommended!