What an exquisite release this is. By turns meditative, inquiring, playful and restless. But always provocative. And with an element of sensuous fantasy. For her debut recording, Helsinki-based Spanish cellist Guadalupe López Iñiguez takes a holistic approach to the complete works for cello of baroque composers Domenico Gabrielli and Alessandro Scarlatti – one embracing psychology, musicology and sociology. She is accompanied by like-minded musicians: a continuo ensemble comprising Markku Luolajan-Mikkola (baroque cello), Olli Hyyrynen (baroque guitar and archlute) and Lauri Honkavirta (harpsichord).

The sonatas for cello and continuo are interspersed by Gabrielli’s improvisatory ricercars for solo cello; there is also, after the opening Sonata in G by Gabrielli, his Canon in D for two cellos. Sometimes the harpsichord is joined by baroque guitar, sometimes the archlute fills out the harmonies alone.

López Iñiguez’s collaborators are exceptional, responding to a score with few markings and no realised bass with taste and imagination. But whether in concert  or alone in the ricercars, it is López Iñiguez’s artistic vision – one which acknowledges that early music is a contemporary construct and all interpretation is negotiation – that prevails. Flexibility of tempo, of phrasing, of articulation, of thought all goes to honour the tacit demands of composer, performer and listener.