Jens Franke presents a portrait album of solo guitar works by Johann Kaspar Mertz (1806-56), the last of the grand Biedermeier guitarists. From polka to paraphrase, scherzo to song transcription, Mertz was Vienna’s voice of pearly nostalgia. Jens Franke, born to an eminent German musical family, trained at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and King's College, London. An artist of eclectic taste, equally at home in the concert room or theatre, he has worked with English National Ballet and was formerly orchestral guitarist of the European Union Youth Orchestra, in which capacity he appeared in concert under Bernard Haitink, playing such venues as the Concertgebouw, the Konzerthaus in Berlin, and Sadler’s Wells.