In the booklet-notes Tom Kerstens says he ‘could not resist indulging in the more light-hearted side of the repertoire’. The elegiac undercurrents of this programme, however, dictate otherwise, and save it from being just another ‘entertainment’. But don’t get me wrong: there’s plenty of excitement here – Kerstens’s playing is sexy, bluesy, introspective and witty.

He organises his programme into four sections, beginning with a group of dances by Latin Americans Brouwer, Piazzolla and Villa-Lobos, before flowing through the Spain of Falla to the earlier times of Tárrega, Pujol and Johann Strauss (arr Coste). A newly commissioned ‘Suite of New Pieces’ by composers including Howard Skempton, Graham Fitkin and Errollyn Wallen provides a thoroughly contemporary finale.

What tilts this recital less towards gaiety than melancholy is the ambiguous mood of the opening group, or how Falla’s Homenaje, ‘Le tombeau de Claude Debussy’, the most substantial work here, imbues the entire disc with a wistfulness further accentuated by Kerstens’s spacious interpretation. The use of period instruments (a Torres for the Tárrega and Pujol, a Staufer for the Strauss/Coste), too, takes the edge off any potential frivolity in the third group to ghostly effect, while the new works look back to older dance forms (and concomitant word-play – Philip Cashian’s Mr Kerstens’ Tango and the ‘Minogue’ of Alastair King’s Kylie tribute are conspicuous examples) while inhabiting the fractious musical language of our own time. The cross-relations set up are so convincing that the effect is almost cinematic. ‘¡Danza!’ has depth despite itself.