Uploaded December 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
This new recording is the second volume of the complete violin sonatas, works in which the pianoforte plays a significant role next to the solo violin.
💎 🎵 Purchase, stream or download (Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, Presto): brilliant-classics.lnk.to/BoccheriniCompleteViolinVol2ID
🎬🎮 These tracks are available for sync licensing in videos, films, TV shows, games, advertising, and more. For licensing inquiries: info@brilliantclassicslicensing.com
Luigi Boccherini composed just a single set of sonatas, Op.5, specifically for violin and piano. However, his commercial celebrity and his artistic reputation at the time, as a composer considered in the same breath as Mozart and Haydn, encouraged publishers to commission arrangements of other works.
Such arrangements include this set of Sonatas published in London in 1780, made by Thomas Billington but admitted to the catalogue of Boccherini’s works as G34-39. Igor Ruhadze and Alexandra Nepomnyashchaya have made the first ever complete recording of this set as a sequel to their 5CD set of Boccherini sonatas (96612) issued by Brilliant Classics in 2023.
‘Looking forward to the sequel!’ concluded the review in Diapason of that set, after praising the stylish spirit of musicianship and authenticity in the playing of both artists. Compared to their rivals on record, remarked the reviewer, ‘the seduction is more demonstrative, the contrasts more accentuated, the sensuality and the feeling more showy.’
Today, as Rudolf Rasch’s booklet note remarks, we may prefer original works over arranged works; in the 18th century, such a preference was unknown. No one looked down on them. In fact, they made a composer’s music accessible for those who could not perform them in their original format. There was hardly a format more accessible for music-making among friends than the violin sonata, in which the piano would take the lion’s share of the harmony from the original work, with the principal melody line assigned to the violin.
As well as these violin sonatas, Thomas Billington arranged Corelli’s concerti grossi for solo keyboard, and composed a good deal of his own music. In these sonatas, he drew from Boccherini’s Trios Op.4 and Op.6, Quartets Op.8 and Quintets Op.10. He was in any case emulating the example of Boccherini himself, who made several such arrangements. As always with Boccherini, there is no shortage of attractive melodies and upbeat, galant invention to contrast with the lyrical beauty of the slow movements.
Tracklist:
Sonata No. 1 G.34 in C Major:
00:00:00 I. Allegro con forza
00:07:55 II. Adagio
00:12:34 III. Rondo grazioso
Sonata No. 2 G.35 in E Major:
00:14:57 I. Allegro moderato
00:18:37 II. Cantabile, ma con un poco moto
00:18:37 III. Tempo di minuetto
00:21:38 IV. Finale presto assai
Sonata No. 3 G.36 in B-Flat Minor:
00:26:06 I. Allegro assai
00:31:37 II. Adagio
00:34:40 III. Allegro [presto assai]
Sonata No. 4 G.37 in E-Flat Major:
00:41:16 I. Allegro
00:46:05 II. Adagio
00:47:37 III. Tempo di minuetto
00:49:33 IV. Allegro assai
Sonata No. 5 G.38 in A Major:
00:56:00 I. Andante grazioso
01:01:21 II. Allegro con spirito
Sonata No. 6 G.39 in D Major:
01:07:25 I. Andante
01:10:44 II. Allegro con spirito
01:14:47 III. Rondo Tempo di minuetto
#Boccherini #Fortepiano #Violin #Sonata #Mozart #Haydn #Italy #Italian #Composer #BrilliantClassics #Classical #Classics #Music
This new recording is the second volume of the complete violin sonatas, works in which the pianoforte plays a significant role next to the solo violin.
💎 🎵 Purchase, stream or download (Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, Presto): brilliant-classics.lnk.to/BoccheriniCompleteViolinVol2ID
🎬🎮 These tracks are available for sync licensing in videos, films, TV shows, games, advertising, and more. For licensing inquiries: info@brilliantclassicslicensing.com
Luigi Boccherini composed just a single set of sonatas, Op.5, specifically for violin and piano. However, his commercial celebrity and his artistic reputation at the time, as a composer considered in the same breath as Mozart and Haydn, encouraged publishers to commission arrangements of other works.
Such arrangements include this set of Sonatas published in London in 1780, made by Thomas Billington but admitted to the catalogue of Boccherini’s works as G34-39. Igor Ruhadze and Alexandra Nepomnyashchaya have made the first ever complete recording of this set as a sequel to their 5CD set of Boccherini sonatas (96612) issued by Brilliant Classics in 2023.
‘Looking forward to the sequel!’ concluded the review in Diapason of that set, after praising the stylish spirit of musicianship and authenticity in the playing of both artists. Compared to their rivals on record, remarked the reviewer, ‘the seduction is more demonstrative, the contrasts more accentuated, the sensuality and the feeling more showy.’
Today, as Rudolf Rasch’s booklet note remarks, we may prefer original works over arranged works; in the 18th century, such a preference was unknown. No one looked down on them. In fact, they made a composer’s music accessible for those who could not perform them in their original format. There was hardly a format more accessible for music-making among friends than the violin sonata, in which the piano would take the lion’s share of the harmony from the original work, with the principal melody line assigned to the violin.
As well as these violin sonatas, Thomas Billington arranged Corelli’s concerti grossi for solo keyboard, and composed a good deal of his own music. In these sonatas, he drew from Boccherini’s Trios Op.4 and Op.6, Quartets Op.8 and Quintets Op.10. He was in any case emulating the example of Boccherini himself, who made several such arrangements. As always with Boccherini, there is no shortage of attractive melodies and upbeat, galant invention to contrast with the lyrical beauty of the slow movements.
Tracklist:
Sonata No. 1 G.34 in C Major:
00:00:00 I. Allegro con forza
00:07:55 II. Adagio
00:12:34 III. Rondo grazioso
Sonata No. 2 G.35 in E Major:
00:14:57 I. Allegro moderato
00:18:37 II. Cantabile, ma con un poco moto
00:18:37 III. Tempo di minuetto
00:21:38 IV. Finale presto assai
Sonata No. 3 G.36 in B-Flat Minor:
00:26:06 I. Allegro assai
00:31:37 II. Adagio
00:34:40 III. Allegro [presto assai]
Sonata No. 4 G.37 in E-Flat Major:
00:41:16 I. Allegro
00:46:05 II. Adagio
00:47:37 III. Tempo di minuetto
00:49:33 IV. Allegro assai
Sonata No. 5 G.38 in A Major:
00:56:00 I. Andante grazioso
01:01:21 II. Allegro con spirito
Sonata No. 6 G.39 in D Major:
01:07:25 I. Andante
01:10:44 II. Allegro con spirito
01:14:47 III. Rondo Tempo di minuetto
#Boccherini #Fortepiano #Violin #Sonata #Mozart #Haydn #Italy #Italian #Composer #BrilliantClassics #Classical #Classics #Music
