The Georgian-American composer George Oakley writes in an appealing and colourful style that blends elements of his Georgian folk heritage with European and American traditions. Wisps of Prokofiev can be discerned in several of the chamber works on this new disc, but so can ardent and propulsive music that sounds like the product of an original and fertile mind.

The writing for piano in all of these pieces sends signals about the composer’s own award-winning keyboard abilities, especially in the opening Toccata (2008), with its darting figures full of jazz character, and the closing Sonata-Fantasia (2010), a generous score that brings together all sorts of fierce and ruminative ideas. Inga Kashakashvili in the former and Tamar Mikeladze in the latter are stellar soloists.

Another bountiful work is the Sonata for cello and piano (2013), whose three movements give both players – here the superb cellist Lizi Ramishvili with Kashakashvili – many opportunities to head in poetic and vivacious directions. Oakley’s versatility in tapping into expressive possibilities is also evident in Remembrance, a one-movement piece in three sections (‘Daydream’ – ‘Dream’ – ‘Awakening’) of luminous conversations for clarinet and piano; the vibrant musicians are Anton Rist, clarinet, and Angelina Gadeliya, piano.

That Oakley is thoroughly versed in styles of many eras, as well as pianistic means, can be heard in Four Songs on Shakespeare Sonnets (2011), which simulates Renaissance music through the prism of contemporary sensibility. The piano part at times is so alive that Shakespeare’s words often fade into the background; but the songs, as performed by mezzo-soprano Naomi Louisa O’Connell and Kashakashvili, are affecting bursts of emotion.