Nail shredding and thumb blistering are just some of the perils to be avoided when recording a new ABC Classics album.

Around the age of 12, I started working on some of Bach’s Lute Suites. A few movements were compulsory competition pieces, I recall, so that’s how I was introduced to Bach for the first time. It was a very different language for me; very hard to understand the endless movement. I remember being hypnotised and not really understanding it all. At that age I was mostly playing lots of generic Spanish and South American music – not necessarily simple, but very natural on the guitar. Bach was a brand new world.

After I’d finished school and moved to Europe, guitar presenters and promoters who were booking me would often ask for a lute suite to be in the programme, so I needed to have a few up my sleeve. What appeals to me about Bach in particular is how so much of his music has been adapted, not just during his time but over all the years since. There seems to be a very open mind about this, which is wonderful as there are so many different ways...