‘We aren’t deleting notes,” says Pekka Kuusisto, “but deleting ketchup.” The Finnish conductor and violinist is talking about Ralph Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending, a piece of such innate Britishness that it veritably tops UK classical song recognition polls. Kuusisto’s Lark isn’t RVW-lite, on the opposite hand, but a penetrating, convincingly upright myth that strips the song again to its the largest roots within the English folks tradition. Opening with a breathless converse, it flutters and soars earlier than vanishing steady into a realm of spiritual tranquillity.

The album, entitled Willows and featuring the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, is in allotment a reflection on danger and loss: Ellen Reid’s Desiderium, a visceral howl for solo violin, is dedicated to Kuusisto’s gifted brother Jaako, who died in 2022. In varied locations, Caroline Shaw’s Thought & Elevation, an orchestral model of her 2015 string quartet, picks up on the arboreal theme in a piece that maps out Washington DC’s Dumbarton Oaks estate. Architecturally conceived, the allotment takes Mozart and Ravel as its guides in flickering lines crisscrossing five varied movements.

Polishing off the circle, Sam Amidon lends guitar, banjo and his distinctive vocals to six extinct American folks songs, right here arranged by Nico Muhly. As expressions of religion, sorrow, ritual and resistance, they blueprint this creative album to a heartfelt shut.

Circulation it on Apple Music (above) or on Spotify