Francisco Tárrega was born in Spain in 1852 at a time when the guitar was in decline. At first he was pointed towards a career as a pianist, and studied the instrument at the Madrid Conservatoire. The reason for the decline was the high impact of the piano compared with the weak guitar. Tárrega was, however, to hear a new guitar of a volume and impact never before achieved, and decided to concentrate his career in this field. He was to become the most brilliant virtuoso of the instrument in the late 19th century, to such an extent that he saw the re-birth of the guitar. He composed a large number of original works for the instrument, and made a vast number of transcriptions. His own works were often cameos, as short as the nineteen second Prelude which opens this disc.

Johann Sebastian Bach was born in 1685 and was part of a long line of a Bach family that had been kapellmeisters and cantors since the middle of the 16th century. He was to become a celebrated church