There is a music trade magazine that publishes an annual poll of its readers and professional critics. One of the categories is, “Talent Deserving of Wider Recognition.”

I flashed on that as I listened to Sunday afternoon’s performance at Pacific Union College showcasing the world premiere of Napa bassist-composer Robert Wright’s “Concerto for Piano and Strings.”

That was reinforced as I walked up the aisle after the performance and a well-known Angwin musician said, “I’d come back to hear that again.”

It was part concert, part cultural exchange and part educational endeavor with Japanese pianist Hiroki Miyagi making her second Napa Valley sojourn to perform Wright’s work, which was fertilized in 1999 and not hatched until this week.

When Wright heard Miyagi play with the North Bay Philharmonic nearly a decade ago, he vowed to compose a piece for her. In the ensuing years, they have remained in contact, mutually refined the piece and put together the funding and logistics for the concert that they hope to repeat in Napa’s sister city of Iwanuma, Japan.

Miyagi’s 2007 Napa experience began Friday night with a solo-chamber music concert at Napa’s First United Methodist Church, long known as a venue for fine music thanks to Chamber Music Napa Valley, which has since moved to the Opera House.

That well-established audience would have been well advised to check out Miyagi’s and Wright’s efforts that evening. Alas, only a handful of listeners appeared.

Sunday was different, however. Nearly a hundred listeners were treated to a much more musically satisfying combination of orchestral and pianistic offerings.

Edvard Grieg’s 1884 “From Holberg’s Time,” a five-part suite of dance forms that started a bridge to 20th-century music, provided a delightful opening and was remarkably compatible with Wright’s works which were to follow.

Conductor Rachelle Berthelsen-Davis’ staccato baton technique urged the best from the small orchestra. It ranged from the mixed tempi of the Grieg to Wright’s 1994 tone poem, “Twilight at Mount Veeder.”

The latter provided a harbinger of things to come.

Wright said the concerto was the product of a long artistic process. Indeed, it’s been eight years since he first set pen to manuscript paper that saw Miyagi play the first notes of the “Tempo Giusto” movement.

Both the first and third movements use the musical descriptor “Giusto,” meaning “just right.” And they were. But of course, that’s a subjective decision. In the first case it was a Maestoso that quickly shifted moods.

The work throughout had strong Oriental elements, not surprising due to Miyagi’s Japanese roots and Wright’s alter ego — acupuncturist and Chinese medicine expert.

The mood shifted frequently, leading to a bit of a musical hodge-podge, but since that term is really a synonym for a mixture or medley, I guess that’s a good thing. It did feel a bit like an emotional roller coaster occasionally.

The second and third movements contained ethereal elements reminiscent of  Wright’s “Twilight at Mt. Veeder.”

Wright showed an uncanny sense of mood creation, adding tension, and then releasing it, not unlike a good film score.

Miyagi proved to be more a Mozart performer when put on balance with Friday and Sunday, but was up to any musical task. Her performance of Wright’s piece was the highlight of her weekend in the NapaValley.

“Talent Deserving of Wider Recognition.” Add the names Robert Wright and Hiroki Miyagi.