If the history of eighteenth-century cello music and performance in Spain is still waiting to be written, Josetxu Obregón and La Ritirata are bringing us up close to the instrument’s role during that time with their Glossa CD, The Cello in Spain. The selection made by this exciting cellist provides a sample of pieces which undoubtedly would have been heard in Spain during the infancy of the instrument there and in the period leading into the Age of the Enlightenment.

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Such was the growing taste for the instrument that many composers and virtuosi came from elsewhere to perform, either passing through the country or settling there for life as did Luigi Boccherini or Domingo Porretti (a Cello Concerto from the latter is performed here). Obregón’s vivid advocacy reaches through to the first native cello school, with music from Pablo Vidal and José Zayas; many of these pieces here are being recorded for the first time.