In a few works on this fascinating recording, one can hear perhaps a few faint echoes of the rollicking and erotically charged chacona, a dance that crossed the Atlantic from the New World and insinuated itself into popular Spanish culture in the 16th century. Bernardo Storace’s mid-17th-century Ciaccona has the high spirits and tart rhythmic profile of what the original, improvisatory form may have sounded like, and Georg Böhm’s much more domesticated Chaconne (likely written decades later) has a piquant tendency to harmonic instability and strange, other-worldly chromatic twists. But by the time the chacona had become a staple of the instrumental repertoire – defined by its repeating bass-line and often indistinguishable from the passacaglia – it was more a formal challenge to composers than a libidinal invitation to the dance.

The most famous, of course, is Bach’s great Chaconne from the Partita in D minor for solo violin. A version of that is heard here, transposed and in an arrangement that borrows from transcriptions by Lars Ulrik Mortensen and Gustav Leonhardt. Harpsichordist Guillermo Brachetta’s performance of the Bach is one of the few disappointments on this otherwise delightful disc. The celebrity of the Bach may have hindered his sense of freedom, and the arrangement is relatively literal and doesn’t take advantage of the instrument’s full capacities. In any case, it lacks the expressive freedom and majesty of the work played by a great violinist, though it has moments of brilliance.

No matter. There are many compensating delights, and the range of works demonstrates the flexibility of the form and the ingenuity of the composers. There’s no comparison with the integrated, long-form arch that Bach achieves but Johann Joseph Fux’s wonderfully florid and virtuoso Ciaccona is worked out on an almost equally grand scale. French contributions include a melancholy little character piece by Chambonnières and an expansively regal account by Duphly.

By crossing national and stylistic boundaries (John Blow is also present here), and including works from the mid 16th to well into the 17th century, Brachetta sets himself a considerable interpretative challenge. But his playing is fluent, his characterisations lively and idiomatic, and his use of two different instruments, one bright and light, the other with a smokier timbre, helps give definition to the several works. He is most at home in the French works, and the disc’s final track, by Louis Couperin, is a highlight. It also seems to be the work most likely to have been in Bach’s ear when he wrote his masterpiece.