Readers with long memories may recall that in 1970 a 10-year-old, curly-haired prodigy from Norway won ITV’s hugely popular Opportunity Knocks! talent competition. For those who had wondered whatever happened to Wolfgang Plagge, he grew up to become an accomplished composer, with over 150 works to his name, and still plays the piano. His recent genial Trombone Concerto is only a couple of years old (the booklet gives no date but the opus number as 136, contradicting the cover’s 138), fluently written in an accessible, modern-tonal idiom and, like Egil Høvland’s euphonious Concerto (1972), traditional in format. Høvland’s is the finer work, appealing without any compromise in technical rigour and full of interesting detail; listen especially to the woodwind and percussion writing.

The second concerto Fanfares and Fairytales (2003-04) by Torsten Aagaard-Nilson, whose surname is often spelled Aagaard-Nilsen, is more complex, its four movements creating a fascinating and fantastical musical landscape.

PK Svensen, accompanied sympathetically by the Malmö SO, acquits himself with distinction, making the best case for each work, even Magne Amdahl’s bizarre, eruptive Elegi. In the Høvland, however, Christian Lindberg remains first choice while Per Brevig’s fine account is part of an all-Høvland issue. Something similar occurs with regard to Holmboe’s concerto on Dacapo’s survey of Danish trombone concertos (the latter’s production values of which I am bound to remark are consistently finer than Lindberg Lyd’s). Jesper Juul is an exceptionally fine player and his account is well done, but he is not “the undisputed leading light of the profession” as Dacapo’s back cover proclaims – Lindberg remains that, as his rival BIS version confirms. (Jacques Mauger is not embarrassed in this company, either.)

It must be said that the Danish pieces are more variable in quality. Launy Grøndahl’s Concerto, given here for the first time in a restored version close to the 1924 original, is a fine piece, but Axel Jørgensen’s mid-1920s Romance and Suite are pleasant but minor works. However, I found Søren Hyldgaard’s inflated Concerto borealis (2000, rev 2005) saccharine in the extreme. Hyldgaard is an accomplished film music composer and his concerto relies overmuch on cinematic expression. It is nicely played, none the less.