Spanish Baroque music played on the viola? Why not – especially when the viola is played by someone of the calibre of Nils Mönkemeyer, who has garnered praise worldwide for his magnificent richness of tone and virtuosity, and has in any case made a career from adapting other music for his instrument. He speaks with cheerful enthusiasm in the booklet-notes of the development of his enthusiasm for Spanish music of this period when he began to teach in Madrid.

Some of the choices of repertoire to adapt for solo viola and small continuo group are perfectly logical, such as the Sonata in D minor by Gaetano Brunetti or the Musica notturna by Boccherini, and some are rather more surprising, such as the arrangements of keyboard sonatas by Soler or Nebra’s marvellous Seguidilla, but they are all are extremely convincing and there is a remarkable consistency about the whole collection in spite of the variety of its contents. Scarlatti also appears, like Soler, in an arrangement of a keyboard sonata for viola and continuo, specifically the lovely Sonata in A, Kk208, whose yearning melodic writing gives Mönkemeyer every opportunity to display his glowing tone.

The Boccherini is also a triumph: the ‘bells’ of ‘Le campane dell’Ave Maria’ are especially captivating. And there is no better way to end such a recital, surely, than with the contrasting pair of Santiago de Murcia’s Grabe from the Codice Sadivar, in which Mönkemeyer is beautifully supported by Andreas Arend’s theorbo, and Soler’s dazzling Fandango. Recorded sound is excellent.