James Nares (1715-83) was organist at York Minster for 21 years, and subsequently served at the Chapel Royal as Master of the Children. Evidently a reasonably respected figure in his time for his church music, he has been judged by one modern-day scholar as “with Richard Jones, undoubtedly the finest and most unaccountably neglected English keyboard composer of the period”. Julian Perkins does not make such an adventurous claim in the sleeve-notes to this recording of the Eight Setts of Lessons for the harpsichord of 1747 but his advocacy at the keyboard certainly serves this little-known figure well.

Nares was among a number of English composers inspired by the publication of Scarlatti’s Essercizi in London in 1738, and his Lessons (do not be fooled by the title) are technically stimulating, moving through a variety of keyboard styles (brilliant figuration, hand-crossing, sonorous chords, occasional double-thirds) and espousing a number of different formal types – some “setts” are effectively sonatas, others more like suites. They do not actually sound like Scarlatti (no Spanish flavours for one thing), but neither do they resemble the insipid treble-and-bass music of some of Nares’s compatriots. In short, there is plenty here to hold the interest.

Perkins uses a 1764 Kirckman harpsichord from the Royal Academy of Music, and while it can have a muscly tone, his skilful command of texture (along with Nares’s) ensures that it never tires the ear, while his sound stylistic sense makes the best of the music’s robust eloquence. A suite by Handel, placed halfway through the programme and played on the lighter-toned “Royal” Shudi harpsichord built for the Prince of Wales in 1740, provides a subtle gilding to this thoughtful and well presented tribute.