Here is yet another mesmerising disc of music by Jonathan Harvey. Bird Concerto with Pianosong is a work of remarkable, beguiling beauty, in which the sounds of real birds intertwine with the transformations of their song by the soloist and ensemble...Other Presences from 2006 is an involving example of dialogue between solo trumpet and electronics...Strongly recommended.

He meets the implied, self-imposed comparison with Messiaen head-on...In the hands of a lesser composer the result may appear overly literal, even naive...But Harvey has never shirked away from direct expression when it's suited him...this intriguing work offers Harvey's trademark deftness and acoustic stimulation in equal measure.

Hideki Nagano renders the exacting solo part [of Birdconcerto] with assurance, the London Sinfonietta sounding no less impressive in the hands of David Atherton...Performances are as authoritative as might be expected from musicians such as Gareth Hulse, Paul Archibald and Tim Gill

Actual (Californian) birdsong opens the half-hour movement; the work proceeds as an ever-alert, ripplingly inventive dialogue between raw nature and musical modernism. Art wins out, of course, but the frame of reference has been fascinatingly shifted. Hideki Nagano’s performance is scintillating.

The common factor between the three works by Jonathan Harvey on this disc is their use of electronic sampling to extend the range and complexity of the solo instrumental writing...If the technology used in Ricercare is much less sophisticated than in the later works, Harvey still uses it to striking effect