Another handsomely packaged and superbly recorded release from ECM, “Musica del Delphin” sees Argentinian guitarist Pablo Márquez going back to the future by playing 16th-century vihuela music on a modern classical guitar. And who’s going to argue, considering the results?

The great Spanish vihuelist and composer Luys de Narváez (c1500-1550) was a real innovator, being the first composer in any genre to write sets of variations, as well as the first to use tempo markings. From Narváez’s monument, the Seys libros del Delphin of 1538, Márquez has selected 17 pieces and organised them into eight groups, each of which begins with a fantasia in one of the eight church modes. Apart from the fantasias, we have variations (diferencias) and intabulations of choral music by Josquin and Richafort.

What most impresses about Márquez’s playing is a sweetness of tone that recalls the use of the flesh against gut courses, a relatively free approach to phrasing and a seemingly effortless technique – this latter a huge plus in the more rapid passages and ornamentation, which can often sound over-articulated and effortful on the guitar. But Márquez is not interested in aping the sound of the lightly constructed vihuela – he’s after a sonority that’s perfectly apposite to the character of the music. Consequently, comparing Márquez’s playing with that of vihuelist Hopkinson Smith (Astrée, 3/90 – nla), you can hear the vast differences between the two instruments, but also a remarkable similarity between each artist’s overall conception that has nothing to do with imitation, everything to do with imagination.