Seven years after issuing his hugely entertaining Clarinet Concerto (5/06), Ondine has released another big, exuberant concerto by Kimmo Hakola, this time for guitar (but of equivalent size at 37 minutes). Commissioned by Timo Korhonen, the Guitar Concerto (2008) is in three large movements and continues the composer’s fascination with European Jewry and its musical heritage; here Iberian Sephardi replace the Eastern Ashkenazim, much as the Spanish guitar replaces the klezmer clarinet.

There is a direct influence in the wonderful central movement Adio (Amoroso), based on the Sephardic song ‘Adio Querida’, long a favourite of the composer’s. The intensity of Hakola’s response to the music compels attention through every bar of the movement, all the more effectively following the opening Allegro brillante which does not quite come off, being overlong for its material. The riotous final ‘Ghetto’, which seems to depict a knees-up in the Jewish Quarter of Toledo or Cordoba, brings the work to a thrilling finish.

Korhonen’s abilities are tested to the full as they are by the very restraint (comparatively) of Toshio Hosokawa’s Voyage IX (2007), a dreamy, single-span meditation on man’s relationship with nature, suggested by the metaphor of a lotus flower (guitar) and water (orchestra). There is a floral inspiration behind the purely orchestral Blossoming II (2011), this time the lotus blossom central to Buddhism. There’s a refreshing volatility to this short, overture-like work that deserves to be more widely known. The Oulu Symphony Orchestra are on fine form throughout and Santtu-Matias Rouvali directs with assurance. Brilliant sound, as always from Ondine.