Luigi Boccherini composed only one collection of sonatas, Op. 5, specifically for violin and piano. However, his commercial fame and artistic reputation at the time as a composer who was mentioned in the same breath as Mozart and Haydn encouraged publishers to commission arrangements of other works.

These arrangements include this collection of sonatas by Thomas Billington, published in London in 1780, but included in Boccherini's catalog of works as G34-39. Igor Ruhadze and Alexandra Nepomnyashchaya have recorded the first complete recording of this collection as a sequel to their 5-CD collection of Boccherini sonatas (96612), released by Brilliant Classics in 2023.

"I look forward to the sequel!" concluded the review of this collection in Diapason, after praising the stylish spirit of musicality and authenticity in the playing of both artists. Compared to their rivals on record, the reviewer noted, "the seduction is clearer, the contrasts more accentuated, the sensuality and feeling more striking."

Today, according to Rudolf Rasch in his booklet, we may prefer original works to arranged works; in the 18th century such a preference was unknown. Nobody despised them. In fact, they made a composer's music accessible to those who could not perform it in its original version. There was hardly a more accessible form for music-making among friends than the violin sonata, in which the piano took the lion's share of the harmony from the original work, while the main melody was assigned to the violin.

In addition to these violin sonatas, Thomas Billington arranged Corelli's concerti grossi for solo piano and composed much of his own music. In these sonatas, he drew on Boccherini's Trios op. 4 and op. 6, Quartets op. 8 and Quintets op. 10. He took his cue from Boccherini himself, who made several such arrangements. As always with Boccherini, there is no lack of attractive melodies and lively, gallant ideas, which form a contrast to the lyrical beauty of the slow movements.

- Luigi Boccherini was born on February 19, 1743 in Lucca, Tuscany, Italy, the son of cellist and double bassist Leopoldo Boccherini. The young Luigi received his first music lessons from his father and at the Seminario di San Giovanni in Lucca. The cello was to become his instrument. At the age of ten, he was apparently already so advanced that his father sent him to Rome for further studies at the end of 1753, where he possibly remained until 1756. Apart from a short stay in Vienna around 1760, he lived in Lucca until he left for Paris (probably the most important musical center of the time) in the spring of 1768. Later that year he traveled to Spain, where he remained until his death on 28 May 1805.

- This new recording is the second volume of the complete violin sonatas, works in which the pianoforte plays an important role alongside the solo violin.

- Critical praise for violinist Igor Ruhadze and pianist Alexandra Nepomnyashchaya: "The world of early music needs more performers like Igor Ruhadze ... This is one of the most accomplished historically informed violin performances I have heard in a long time."