A cutesy digipak featuring Johannes Möller, his head a mass of blond ringlets, and his puppy dog companion, bodes ill for the artistic merits of this debut recital. But fear not! Möller’s programme, while accessible and attractive, is also thought-provoking and intelligently executed.

Manuel de Falla and Francisco Tárrega bookend the recital; in between are works by three composers whose birth dates are a year apart: Joaquín Rodrigo (1901), Antonio José (1902) and Eduard Sainz de la Maza (1903). The two most substantial pieces, and the most French-inflected, are Falla’s Homenaje pour le tombeau de Claude Debussy and José’s Sonata of 1933, which follows the cyclic compositional procedures of César Franck and is well worth becoming acquainted with. Its ‘Pavana triste’ is particularly beautiful, recalling Mompou’s ‘Cuna’ from the Suite compostelana.

Möller’s playing is lucid rather than flashy, his tempi generally on the leisurely side; like any good painter, he prefers a restricted palette in order not to obscure the underlying structure. This is obvious not only in the above-mentioned works but in the more modest Preludes of Tárrega. And his ability to maintain an even tone while producing a singing line is exemplified by the tremolandi in Rodrigo’s Junto al Generalife, Sainz de la Maza’s Campanas del Alba and Tárrega’s ubiquitous Recuerdos de la Alhambra.

A debut with much to recommend it, then. And, you know, upon closer acquaintance the packaging does improve – in an elegant, Euro-pop kind of way.