American classical guitarist Xavier Jara has taken first prize at numerous international competitions, including the prestigious 2016 GFA International Concert Artist Competition. This release stands out not only for the sheer musicality and technical brilliance of the performer, but for his imaginatively structured and adventurous programme. It balances the poetic beauty of John Dowland and Alan Rawthorne with the broad appeal of Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s Variations across the Centuries, technically challenging works by Dušan Bogdanović, as well as intriguing discoveries such as young composer Jeremy Collins’s Elegy.