Anders Koppel’s borderless view of music has taken in everything from psychedelic rock to world music and avant-garde concert pieces. But his gregarious musical aesthetic has found a special home in the world of the instrumental concerto, a genre whose exchange of energies continues to inspire him. Three of Koppel’s most charming concertos are heard here in new recordings from the musicians who inspired them and the Danish Sinfonietta, that commissioned and first performed them.

Anders Koppel is a composer who has one foot firmly planted in the classical European musical tradition and the other in world music, rock and jazz. His long career can be seen as a mission to unite these cultures in contemporary musical idiom.

His works since the turn of the century display fun-loving, impulsive and mobile qualities. ‘I really want my music to speak as simply as it can’, he says.

In his concertos, Koppel sees the solo instrument as a conduit for charisma and a means of bridging the gap between stage and audience.

The Concertino for Two Guitars places Latin grooves in the context of a cool Nordic temperament.

Andorinha (‘The Swallow’) features an intoxicating combination of syncopated rhythms and slinky nocturnal melodies. The ‘swallow’ is felt in circular flute figurations.

Harpo Marx of the Marx Brothers was an early inspiration to Harpo, with his mischief, unconventional and poetic energy. There is a transatlantic air to the concerto, with harmonic and rhythmic loops familiar from American minimalism.