By Jonathan Blumhofer

There’s plenty in Magnus Lindberg’s viola concerto to occupy the ear, and pianist Claire Huangci makes the complex passagework of a trio of American composers speak with breathtaking ease.

That the viola concerto hasn’t caught up to the popularity level of the violin or piano concerto isn’t entirely surprising: the genre got off to a much later start. But the sheer volume of quality concerti for the instrument by major composers is striking. One of the latest to join the parade is Magnus Lindberg, whose effort gets its debut recording from Lawrence Power and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Nicholas Collon.

Lindberg’s 34-minute-long score is cut from similar stylistic cloth as his violin and piano concerti. There are tonal (or at least diatonic) landing points and a series of recurring motivic ideas, though few tunes or expansive melodic lines. The multi-movement structure unfolds in a series of contrasting sections defined by subtle shifts of character.

While the music’s thematic connections are clear, the range of variety within the latter isn’t always strong enough to carry the larger work. That said, there’s plenty with which to occupy the ear, from the echoes of Sibelius and Respighi in the first movement to the gooey, Debussy-worthy sonorities in the middle of the second. The finale’s Ravel-meets-Messiaen refrains and unexpected, A-flat-major final cadence crown the piece luminously.

Throughout, the solo writing gives the viola a thorough, flattering workout. Power has no issues with any of it – including the unexpected bit of singing he offers during the powerhouse cadenza.

Filling out the album are a pair of purely orchestral works.

Absence, which was written for the Beethoven anniversary year of 2020, is a study of references that may or may not be what they seem. The “Muss es sein?” quote from the op. 135 string quartet repeatedly emerges like a lighthouse in a fog. Elsewhere, swimming, Impressionistic textures, sprightly Gershwin-esque spots, and echoes of the natural world (think Sibelius and Rautavaara) hover like specters. What it all means is anyone’s guess, but this is absorbing, ingenious music, full of rhythmic and tonal discretion.

So is Serenades, another 2020 commission, this time from the Chicago Symphony. Surprisingly ominous (given the title), the score’s beguiling colors and shifts of character keep the ear’s attention for its full seventeen-minute duration – and then linger in the mind for a while after.

George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue defines a period of concert music so idiomatically that it can be surprising to recall what was going on, musically, around (and after) its premiere in 1924. Intentionally or not, pianist Claire Huangci’s Made in U.S.A. does just that, pairing Gershwin’s greatest hit with roughly contemporaneous music by Amy Beach, Samuel Barber, and Earl Wild.

Beach’s Variations on Balkan Themes frames the Rhapsody chronologically: it was originally written in 1904 but then revised in 1936. Rarely performed and infrequently recorded, it’s a bear of a piece, on par with Brahms’s big keyboard variations of the mid-19^th-century.

Huangci isn’t daunted by any of that, instead turning in a performance of warmth and feeling that ably captures the Variations’ epic scope. In assuredly navigating the music’s fearsome demands she imbues the will-o-wispy figurations of the third variation and fantastical Romani-infused phrasings of the sixth with conspicuous character.

She’s also got a complete handle on Barber’s 1942 Piano Sonata. Music of astounding complexity and intellectual rigor, it is one of the composer’s most stirring and impressive works.

Huangci gets even its most complex passagework to speak with breathtaking ease. The glittering runs and repeated notes in the first movement are beautifully balanced. Her take on the diaphanous Allegro vivace hardly touches the ground. Meanwhile, the Adagio’s quiet, inward episodes pack eerie intensity and the finale’s bristling counterpoint simply sounds exhilarating.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, so does her traversal of Wild’s 7 Virtuoso Etudes after Gershwin. At times, for clarity and style, she seems to be channeling Gershwin’s improvisations on his own music. “Liza” is incredibly clean and even. “Embraceable You’s” filigree is all there, yet it somehow never gets in the way of the melodic line. And for buzzing glitter, you can hardly do better than her antic “Fascinatin’ Rhythm.”

The solo-piano version of Rhapsody that open the album is likewise spirited. Textures jump, voicings are alive and playful: this is an account that doesn’t make you miss the orchestral accompaniment for a moment.

Jonathan Blumhofer is a composer and violist who has been active in the greater Boston area since 2004. His music has received numerous awards and been performed by various ensembles, including the American Composers Orchestra, Kiev Philharmonic, Camerata Chicago, Xanthos Ensemble, and Juventas New Music Group. Since receiving his doctorate from Boston University in 2010, Jon has taught at Clark University, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and online for the University of Phoenix, in addition to writing music criticism for the Worcester Telegram & Gazette.