The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic does not often commission new music, and a sparse crowd indicated that a 40-minute trumpet concerto entitled Desolation Wilderness was not the most obvious place to start.

Yet Joby Talbot's first major orchestral commission is by no means as frightening as it sounds. It is a lavish, panoramic piece of Americana inspired by a drive through the untamed expanses of the north Californian landscape, whose musical moods mirror the quicksilver changes of the desert climate. Talbot began his career playing in the pop group The Divine Comedy, and is in demand as a composer of film scores. So it is no surprise that Desolation Wilderness resembles the soundtrack to an imaginary road movie, conceived as a star vehicle for the scintillating young trumpet player, Alison Balsom.

There is not a vast tradition of contemporary trumpet literature: but whereas Shostakovich's concerto utilises the instrument as an irritant, and James MacMillian as a means of browbeating an entire orchestra, Talbot conceives the soloist's role as a behind-the-wheel commentary on the blasted aspens and freezing lakes of the high mountain pass.

The trumpet is rarely the most subtle of instruments, yet the suppleness and fluidity of Balsom's technique is astounding. The long, liquid lines she plays in the central slow movement defy conventional lung capacity, while the finale sees her swooping and fluttering through passages that even a flautist might find impossible to play.

JoAnn Falletta, the vivacious director of the Buffalo Philharmonic, was an inspired choice to conduct, maintaining the hypnotic momentum without letting the work feel rhythmically unyielding.

The programme opened with a minimalist classic: John Adams' Short Ride in a Fast Machine. Talbot's concerto, by comparison, is a languid tour in an all-terrain vehicle.