Many of the works on this recording were composed with particular guitarists in mind. The English Suite was written at the suggestion of the great Spanish guitarist Andrés Segovia, the Suite piemontese was composed for Angelo Gilardino, the Sonatinette for the debut Wigmore Hall concert of Alice Artzt, and the Variations on a Catalan Folk Song for John Williams. Writtten for the guitar by an acknowledged expert, the works on the disc reveal the many subtleties of the instrument, as well as being immediately attractive in their own right. John Duarte’s musical philosophy has been neatly summed up by the composer himself: ‘As a composer I have never given much thought to what posterity might think of me – I will not be here to know it! My aim is to write primarily for the living and hopefully to give pleasure.’