It’s no coincidence that the two 20th-century classical guitarists most successful in encouraging composers to write for their instrument, and consequently responsible for the richness of its repertoire – Andrés Segovia and Julian Bream – were also the most adept at ‘selling’ both the guitar and the music. That’s to say, through talent, technique and sheer force of personality, they convinced you that you were hearing the greatest music ever written on the greatest instrument ever invented. Well, for a few minutes at least.

Whether any of the works in this debut solo recording by Scottish-Japanese guitarist Sean Shibe should be considered a masterpiece is debatable, though Britten’s Nocturnal surely comes close. Certainly most of them were inspired by Bream’s superlative artistry and are central to the guitar’s repertoire. But that question need not concern us here. Because, under Shibe’s fingers, they are all mesmerising.

The Walton Bagatelles are by turns playful, sensual and impetuous. The evocations of Spain in the Berkeley are brilliantly orchestrated. Shibe doesn’t attempt to imitate the lute in the Dowland, opting instead to connect the tensions arising out of contrapuntal densities and masterful use of diminutions with the modern repertoire that precedes and follows the three pieces. The humour and colour inherent in the Arnold are articulated with a winning sprezzatura. Finally, to Britten’s magnificent variations on Dowland’s ‘Come heavy sleep’ Shibe brings an electrifyingly discursive quality, the occasional tendency to overplay here, as elsewhere, balanced by an even-tempered yet intensely reflective grace.