A former Nørgård pupil, Niels Marthinsen (b1963) has established himself as one of the busiest of the younger generation of Danish composers. A maximalist rather than a minimalist, his music embraces styles and influences from Grieg and Chopin to The Beatles and Chinese pop culture by way of Beethoven, Langgaard, Nielsen and much else. His First Symphony (1995) – of which the Monster Symphony (2004) is styled the “remix” – took one of Grieg’s Lyric Pieces as its starting point. By the end of the remix (inspired by Asger Jorn’s paintings over the pictures of others), in which barely a note of Grieg’s influence survives intact, one might add Prokofievian barbarism, Sallinen and Allan Pettersson. “I don’t try to sound like anything else,” says the composer in the booklet. “I don’t try not to, either.”

Some may find the sheer aggression of the Monster Symphony’s first two movements off-putting but my advice is to persevere: there is humour and real music here worth giving ear time to. So it is with Panorama (1993), a fascinating study in slowness that is like examining an adagio under a microscope. The full picture never emerges until you stand back and get the whole perspective.

The “Operatic Trailer” for his third opera, The Confessional (2006), predates the stage work by two years and functions much like a cinema trailer. This is Marthinsen at his most approachable and exuberant, and would start any concert programme with a bang. Dacapo’s sound is terrific, as are the performances by the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra of some audibly taxing music.