Each of the Concerto’s four movements is a tangy gumbo of diverse idioms that have in common human expression…It’s hugely to Benedetti’s credit, colourfully supported by the Philadelphia orchestra under conductor Cristian Macelaru, that they fuse into a fluent whole across a whopping 40-plus minutes total length…The journey is effectively repeated in the ensuing five-movement Fiddle Dance Suite for solo violin.

“Blues”—the heart of the work—“is the progression of flirtation, courtship, intimacy, sermonizing, final loss and abject loneliness that is out there to claim us all.” The depth and versatility of Benedetti’s playing is fairly astonishing here: She negotiates the vividly dramatic music with the ease and confidence of a born storyteller, with technique and imagination to burn. Benedetti’s enthusiasm and joy of discovery are obvious in every bar, making this one of her most personal and superbly realized recordings to date.

Marsalis gives his muse, Nicola Benedetti, plenty to get her teeth into. A couple of big cadenzas tap into her Celtic roots and show off her technical prowess…[Fiddle Dance Suite] sits somewhere between Bach’s unaccompanied Partitas and a Celtic shindig…though the jazzer’s personality is reflected in the way it feels like music created in the playing of it. Honestly, it’s hard to believe it’s written down at all.

There’s a veritable smörgåsbord of styles and influences at play here - so much so that you may well feel as if you’ve listened to three concertos in one by the time you’re done – but I found it impossible not to be swept along by Marsalis’s free-ranging imagination and Benedetti’s versatility. The gospel-inflected third movement and the uproarious Hootenanny finale are irresistible.

Benedetti lend[s] every drop of her skill and artistry to a monster confection fondly written for her by Wynton Marsalis, the jazz trumpeter and composer who has moved so far beyond the eight-bar blues that he has written an oratorio lasting two and a half hours.