The Spanish nationalism that saw composers as diverse as Albéniz, Falla and Rodrigo look to traditional and archaic musics for inspiration and renewal gave rise to a uniquely Catalan strain, which can be heard in the music of the three composers on this recording. And if Frederic Mompou and Miquel Llobet’s intimate use of Catalan folk melodies and dances makes them more obvious bedfellows, the German guitarist Franz Halász nevertheless finds in violin virtuoso Joan Manén’s expansive Fantasia-Sonata ‘a clearly folkloric influence’.

Like Mompou’s Suite compostelana, which opens this recital, the Fantasia-Sonata was written for Andrés Segovia. It’s a substantial single-movement work of dramatic contrasts that elicits some of Halász’s most thrilling and colourful playing. But the Mompou, next in order of scale and substance, receives an equally compelling performance by virtue of Halász’s ability to switch gears so convincingly between such movements as the frenetic, toccata-like ‘Preludio’ and the delicately solemn ‘Coral’.

Someone who really knew how to give the guitar a workout was Miquel Llobet, a star pupil of the great Francisco Tárrega. His Cançons populars are staples of the guitar repertoire and are replete with frequent changes of register, extensive use of artificial harmonics and glissandos, and mellifluous harmonisations. They are modest, as are Mompou’s gorgeous Cançóns i danses Nos 10 and 13. But such is Halász’s ear for subtle changes in colour almost from note to note – something Segovia was a master of – that pieces like ‘El noi de la mare’, ‘Cançó del lladre’ or ‘El testament de n’Amèlia’ become more bittersweet remembrances of things past than mere miniatures for salon or studio.