Finnish composer Kalevi Aho is known for his large-scale undertakings, and among them is a wide-ranging ‘oboe project’ devoted to writing for the instrument in every genre. This album brings together its central works: the five-movement Oboe Concerto (2007), in which Aho draws on Arabic maqam scales and adds the colours of the oboe d’amore, heckelphone and goblet drums; the ten-minute Solo IX (2010), a virtuosic showpiece; and the Sonata for oboe and piano (1984–85), possibly the first such work by a Finnish composer and the seed from which the whole project grew. The eminent Belgian oboist Piet Van Bockstal, for whom the Concerto and Solo IX were written, is the soloist throughout, joined by pianist Yutaka Oya and by Martyn Brabbins conducting the Lahti Symphony Orchestra – the orchestra at the heart of so much of Aho’s music.