REVIEW: Guitarist John Williams is a regular sell-out favourite at the Bath Festival and deservedly so.

His programme choice is always interesting, combining the familiar, the new and the unexpected.

There's usually something a little challenging, in this case Peter Sculthorpe's Djille (whistling duck), a haunting piece which Williams clearly enjoyed as he coaxed its odd harmonies from his strings.

He began with the safe traditional Three Dances, from the sixteenth century, moved on to the lyrical and occasionally melancholy La Catedral by Agustn Barrios Mangor and then the familiar and rather grand Cordoba by Isaac Albniz.

For the last offering in the first half of the programme he switched guitars, explaining that the second instrument was tuned to mimic a Turkish instrument, for Carlo Domeniconi's Koyunbaba, a colourful showpiece for Williams' technique.

After more familiar Albniz, Williams launched into a Venezuelan second half which created almost a party mood and the Latin rhythms had feet tingling and the urge to get up and dance was almost irresistible.

Williams lets the music generate its own excitement.

He is an undemonstrative performer, appearing to caress the music from his instrument, making technically challenging passages look easy when the rest us are wondering how his two hands can sound like ten.

A wonderfully intimate atmosphere was created with the assistance of some subtle lighting effects.

Jo Bayne

John Williams

Assembly Rooms, Bath

Bath International Festival