Wide and airy St Michael’s, Summertown, has become a much-favoured recording venue in recent years. But in the dead of winter, all that acoustically excellent space presents a challenge to even the most robust of boilers, and a chilly evening meant that Manus Noble needed to retune his guitar at frequent intervals.

So Astor Piazzolla’s Verano Porteno was a welcome opening piece, for it provided an infusion of warmth from the composer’s native Argentina — as I write, the temperature in Buenos Aires is 26C. The Oxford chill did not seem to affect Noble’s clean, fast fingerwork, however, or his noteworthy ability to make the guitar sing.

There was a comforting feeling of warmer weather, too, in Yuquijiro Yocoh’s Sakura: Theme and Variations — Sakura is the Japanese word for cherry blossom. Noble is obviously fond of this piece: he played it in his debut St Michael’s recital last year, and this time he again demonstrated his ability to conjure up a delicate, but not kitschy, Japanese sound picture. Also repeated were Junglescape from Gary Ryan’s Scenes from Brazil, and Alberto Ginastera’s Sonata.

Ryan uses what Manus Noble described as “tweaks and squeaks” to give a graphic feeling of exotic birds singing and flapping their wings among the jungle trees, while Ginastera uses taps on the body of the guitar to give the effect of an added percussion section.

Alongside performances of old friends, Noble’s enthusiasm for finding new works continues unabated. Bruce MacCombie’s Nightshade Rounds featured lots of gently, but nevertheless clearly, stated arpeggios following a chiming start, which reminded me of a carriage clock ringing out the hour. Darren Bloom’s Three made much use of the grittier side of the guitar sound, while Philip Cashian’s Talvi, describing a Scandinavian winter, felt distinctly realistic. This was a recital of many moods and colours, played with immaculate sensitivity.