From individual thought and feeling to the creative curiosity and heritage of a people, a strong sense of belonging permeates this impressive second volume of contemporary music from the Iceland Symphony orchestra and conductor Daniel Bjarnason. Expanding of the largely nature-themed writing of volume one, the four composers here look both inwards and further outwards in diverse yet complementary ways.

Three of the works on this superbly performed and recorded CD are purely orchestral and could be described as tone poems (to use that deeply outmoded term)...The star performers are the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, well directed by Daniel Bjarnason, whose understanding of the various styles, the underlying expressivity and sheer virtuosity of interpretation are wholly involving.

No praise can be too high for the outstanding musicianship of all involved in this priceless album which may well end up being my disc of the year ... Concurrence is a timely reminder of the extraordinary things the most visionary composers can do with an orchestra.

In this quartet of contemporary works, you’ll find Haukur Tomasson’s Second Piano Concerto (the best way to hear Vikingur Olafsson on an album this year). And it offers a recording, at last, of Ms. Thorvaldsdottir’s “Metacosmos” (2017), which in its brief running time seems to ebb and flow on a cosmic scale.