The two features which best define the work of Manuel Balboa are his sad and nostalgic character, recalling a happy time lost forever, and the brevity of his scores none of which, excepting his stage output, lasts more than eight minutes. This recording, containing all his concert music for instrumental ensemble except those the composer himself withdrew from his catalogue, considering them too novel or simply experimental, commemorates what would have been his fiftieth birthday: Balboa died in the city of his birth, La Coruña, in January 2004 aged just forty-five.

José Luis Temes, a personal friend of Balboa and very familiar with his artistic legacy, offers a splendid monograph, along with the Instrumental Ensemble Siglo XX, which may well provide the starting point from which to make known this deeply emotional, intimate and reflective music.