In his opening remarks, Marco Blaauw admits that only latterly did he enjoy the extrovert tendencies of his instrument – and this recital “shows off” in exemplary fashion. Only Hanna Kulenty’s Brass No 1 is a truly abstract study: the first in a cycle of trumpet-centred pieces that puts the double-bell instrument as thoroughly and as scintillatingly through its paces as any music written from a non-jazz perspective.

Two of the works underline the possibilities in combining the trumpet with another instrument. In Llanto, Valerio Sannicandro uses an oboe to diversify the music’s focus on a single pitch so that timbral continuity is not achieved at the expense of sonoric monotony. In Sequenza X, Luciano Berio adopts the more radical procedure of piano keys variously and silently depressed so the unfolding trumpet line is heard against a constantly-changing backdrop of harmonic resonance. Mauricio Kagel’s Morceau de concours opts for a theatrical framework, five different trumpets playing out a heated dialogue curtailed by the exasperated performer. The other pieces derive from operas: Triorchic Blues is Gerald Barry’s deadpan reworking of an aria from The Triumph of Beauty and Deceit; Mysteries of the Macabre is a vital transcription of the manic coloratura aria from György Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre.

Both this and the Berio have been recorded several times but benefit from being heard in a recital context and from the intelligent virtuosity that informs Blaauw’s playing. Upfront but well balanced sound, and a disc to give trumpet players everywhere much food for thought.