Concertos, like composers, need their champions, and in the American virtuoso Kurt Nikkanen the concerto for violin by Thomas Wilson seems to have found one. It requires a leap of faith for an instrumentalist to revive a little-known work by a dead composer, but Nikkanen’s belief in the Wilson concerto was emblazoned over his performance at the weekend with the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland.

Wilson (1927-2001), a leading light in the Scottish musical renaissance of the 1960s and 1970s, was always a composer first and a Scottish one second. That impression is borne out by the Violin Concerto, a 25-minute work in one movement that combines Bartokian astringency with Nordic compression, while inhabiting a world of its own. It was commissioned by the NYOS for its 1993 tour with Ernst Kovacic (preserved on CD), and I first fell under its spell 10 years ago at a performance by Edwin Paling and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. It really deserves to be more widely known. The 80th anniversary of Wilson’s birth has provided a welcome opportunity to revisit it and the Fifth Symphony, another late work, which the Scottish Chamber Orchestra plays next week.