Tine Thing Helseth’s new album marries a number of works by contemporary composers for trumpet and string orchestra with several older pieces that have a distinctly nostalgic feel. Dating from 1990, Eric Ewazen’s four-movement piece was originally conceived as a quintet for trumpet and strings before being arranged for larger forces as a concerto. Both versions have been recorded before, the quintet by Chris Gekker and the concerto by John Holt, but Helseth’s version is a considerable advance on either in terms of refinement, communicative intensity and recording quality. The concerto’s mixture of angularity and rhapsodic lyricism makes a strong impression in this performance and I found episodes from it haunting my mind’s ear for days after listening.

James MacMillan’s three-movement Seraph, described by the composer as a concertino, was composed in 2010 and dedicated to Alison Balsom. I marginally prefer the less urgent tempo of the first movement in Balsom’s recording with the Scottish Ensemble (Warner, 2/12) but otherwise there is little to choose between the conviction and authority of the two performances.

Composed in 2009 for the funeral of his sister, Rolf Wallin’s Elegi expresses a more immediate sense of sadness than does Alexander Arutiunian’s similarly named piece from 2000, which tends towards wistful reminiscence. The songs by Satie and Poulenc and the piece by Grieg, all arranged for trumpet by Helseth’s long-term collaborator Jarle Storløkken, continue the vein of longing for past times. All three are elegantly and movingly performed by Helseth and Ensemble Allegria, and the engineering is first-class.