Album: Blasco de Nebra, Piano Sonatas / Javier Perianes (Harmonia Mundi)

An enigmatic fusion of baroque and classical styles, the music of Manuel Blasco de Nebra languished in manuscript for 180 years after the composer's death.

Domenico Scarlatti is the clearest model for these sonatas, each opening with a moonlit Adagio and closing with a full-sunlight Allegro. The three-movement pastorelas are more unusual, though swamped by the high-gloss sound of a modern grand. Javier Perianes's playing is finely articulated but the music needs to be heard on the instruments of its time.