Of all James Johnstone’s fine recitals this is my favourite, if for no other reason than it has introduced me to a Flemish composer – Peeter Cornet (c1560-c1626) –whose music I didn’t know until now; I suspect that this will be true of most readers. One hears echoes of a great many of Cornet’s contemporaries – particularly Sweelinck and at times Frescobaldi, too – but without forming an impression that it’s derivative.

Like Sweelinck’s, his fantasias are on a massive scale and admirably put together – they are the real meat of this recital – and Johnstone finds a way through them that does justice both to their overall architecture and to their local detail. A number of shorter works bring light relief and suggest other influences at work, for instance in the two courantes. Most of the themes are freely invented but where Cornet pits his invention against well known subjects, such as the hexachord Fantasia Ut re mi fa sol la or the Salve regina (whose alternate plainsong verses are performed by the male singers of The Cardinall’s Musick), he acquits himself with full honours, as his contemporaries would surely have recognised.

I’ve often remarked that a good test of a recording’s impact is the number of times the reviewer is drawn back to it, and Johnstone has hit the bull’s-eye. If you knew about Cornet, chances are it will delight you; and if you didn’t, the chances are just the same.