On track: Full of grandeur and grace

Who has not heard of the Concierto de Aranjuez, the darling of aural media ranging from the concert hall to supermarket Muzak," John Duarte muses stiffly in his booklet notes for a four-CD collection showcasing this and 14 other works by Joaquin Rodrigo (1901-1999).

These recordings from the 1980s, available through Brilliant Classics, and a bargain at $37.95, show there is much more to the Spanish composer than the Aranjuez concerto.

The force holding it all together is Mexican conductor Enrique Batiz who, working with orchestras on both sides of the Atlantic, shows a rare sympathy with a composer whom too many write off as a one-hit wonder.

While Rodrigo's music is hardly challenging, it is never less than graceful, unfailingly evocative and eminently civilised - virtues too easily overlooked in our ruffled times. All can be heard in the 1952 Concierto Serenata, elegantly played by harpist Nancy Allen.

Move to the 1942 Concierto heroico and the language becomes grander and more gestural, inspiring pianist Jorge Federico Osorio to feats of energy which never droop, even in the storms of the Allegro con brio.

In the last decades of his life, Rodrigo wrote for "name" international artists, with his 1977 Concierto Pastoral for James Galway, here expertly handled by flautist Lisa Hansen and the Concierto como uno Divertimento for Julian Lloyd Webber four years later.

While this 1981 cello work is not represented, an earlier 1949 Concierto en modo galante receives a noble reading from Robert Cohen, with Batiz inspiring the wind players of the London Symphony to revel in the sunny brilliance of its Spanish scene-setting, well caught by a first-rate EMI recording.

The final disc concentrates on orchestral pieces. The earliest, the 1934 saga Per la flor del lliri blau is in sharp contrast with the more modest lullabies of Musica para un jardin. It is here that Rodrigo's individual feeling for orchestral colour is revealed.

And there is even a teaser. After being charmed silly by two short movements from the composer's Soleriana, piquant tributes to the Catalonian composer Soler (1729-1783), I am determined to search out the complete suite.

* Rodrigo, Concertos & Orchestral Works (Brilliant Classics, 4CDs 7562)