Fingernails. They are vital to a guitarist, who cannot play without nails of exactly the right length. This was one of the many pieces of information imparted by Craig Ogden during his Sheldonian recital for Music at Oxford. He went on to hilariously describe how you replace a broken nail, but I will not repeat the remedy here, as it might induce queasy feelings when read in cold print.

Ogden, who lives just outside Chipping Norton, is a born communicator, both verbally and musically. His playing is essentially gentle — not for him the heavy grunting and forcefully attacked chords of some guitarists. Rather he makes the instrument sing the music. This he showed from the outset, as he opened with Bach’s Lute Suite No 4, BWV 1006a. Not only did the light tone of the melodies shine through, but Bach’s dance rhythms were shown to be of equal importance. Ogden has long used guitars made by Greg Smallman, whose instruments suit his style exactly, with their clean, transparent sound.

Ogden loves to build programmes with masses of variety — he told me in an Oxford Times interview — and he certainly proved that here.

There was a warm and seductive melody to Piazzolla’s Milonga del Angel, while the same composer’s La Muerte del Angel took on a strongly Spanish flavour. Barrios’s Vals is full of joie de vivre and can sound hackneyed, but not on this occasion. Tadic’s Walk Dance demonstrated the widely differing colours Ogden can draw from his Smallman — before he began this piece he gave us some fascinating insights into guitar tuning techniques.

After the interval, the music became even more varied, with two pieces by Albeniz followed by Django Reinhardt’s Nuages for jazz guitar. The billed programme ended with two contrasting Gary Ryan works, the extrovert Rondo Rodeo, and the tranquil Lough Caragh, tinged with Irish melancholy. This was a fascinating and thoroughly fulfilling evening.