Belize-born British composer Errollyn Wallen was appointed Master of the King’s Music by Charles III last year. Before turning to composing, she attended a dance school, conservatorium, played keyboards in an alternative comedy band and ran a recording studio. She has written operas, ballets, choral pieces and chamber music as well as works for the stage.

The album is a “snapshot” of Wallen’s diverse orchestral works spanning 20 years, from her 2000 student piece The World’s Weather to the opening track Dances for Orchestra, a lively set of 12 short pieces from 2023 which draws on blues, jazz, pop and classical influences and includes a jig, samba, aggressive grime and a delightful nod to Handel’s Sarabande from the Suite in D major.

Mighty River is spacious and substantial, dedicated to her six times great-grandmother, it was commissioned in 2007 to mark the bicentenary of Britain’s abolition of the slave trade. Spirituals Deep River and Go Down Moses are quoted, and Amazing Grace