J.S. Bach, Britten & Others: Guitar Works

Johan Smith won the important Guitar Foundation of America competition in 2019, and this strikingly well-recorded album celebrates that victory. It’s a program that shows off this impressive Swiss player in very contrasting pieces. His magnificent technique makes light work of the Bach toccata, and the double fugue that closes the piece is jaw-droppingly done. The Ponce work is likewise superbly played. At the other end of the musical spectrum, Britten’s introspective, melancholic Nocturnal After John Dowland, Op. 70 is atmospherically performed. The album closes with a composition written for Smith, Josquin Schwizgebel’s “Sables stellaires,” and it’s played with understandable affection.