This new release from arcantus presents selected works for cello and keyboard by Boccherini and his contemporaries. The works are performed here by cellist Mime Yamahiro Brinkmann, and harpsichordist Mariangiola Martello.

Boccherini's Dream transports us to scenes of summer sunshine, where balmy breezes warm sun-kissed faces. This was a world that Luigi Boccherini (1743-1805) knew and loved. He was born in the cosy Tuscan city of Lucca, and it was here his great talent as a cellist began to show.

Of the three Boccherini Sonatas for cello and harpsichord presented in this collection, two were published in his lifetime, while the third, the C major Sonata, G17, was circulated in copies based on the original manuscript copy (Lennoxlove, Scotland).

The dynamism of Sonata G17 can be felt in its rhythm and pulse that makes the listener move and smile as heart and soul are effused with joy. The G major Sonata, G5, was published in 1772, when Boccherini was 29 years old. The fervent beauty drawn out from strings and bow in its Largo movement seems to reach towards the ineffable.

The atmosphere of the final Sonata of the collection, Sonata in C major, G6, also published in 1772, reverts to the magical essence of Boccherini, the buoyant, energetic, optimist.

A playful energy can be felt Francesco Paolo Supriani's four Toccatas for solo cello. In Italian the verb 'toccare' means 'to touch', and the physicality of these four miniatures is palpable. They show how lightly and swiftly the hands can move across the fingerboard in harmony with delicate bow strokes.

The solo keyboard works in this collection are performed on the harpsichord. The Renaissance musical soundscape familiar to the Spaniard Antonio de Cabezón (1510-1566) laid the foundations for sounds that Supriani and Boccherini would hear two hundred years later. The Diferencias is an imaginative set of variations that begins with a unison statement of the theme. Cabezón's Pavana con su glosa, published in 1557, conjures up the elegant and colourful procession of this immensely popular stylish courtly dance.