Boccherini: Cello Sonata in A major, G.13

Originally published in London in 1771, these six Sonatas for cello and basso continuo were arranged for cello and piano by the influential Italian virtuoso cellist Alfredo Piatti in the 1870s and are performed here on modern instruments by outstanding young musicians.

The Russian cellist Fedor Amosov has taken first prize in several international competitions, including the 2007 Knushevitzky Competition.

Boccherini’s blend of virtuosity and melancholy singing style remains to the fore in Piatti’s technically demanding adaptations which, at times, differ both in the cello and keyboard realisations from modern editions of the sonatas derived from other manuscript sources.

This bargain-priced 3-CD set gathers together previous releases of Italian concertos and sonatas from the baroque period by the highly-talented cellist Lucia Swarts. Included are cello concertos by Platti, Porpora, Vivaldi, Jacchini, and Leo, while Vivaldi and Boccherini each have a full disc of cello sonatas.

Lucia Swarts studied with Anner Bylsma and Lidewij Scheifes at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. In 1985 she gave her debut recital in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw in the series New Vintage for talented young musicians. She is first cellist in the Baroque Orchestra of the Netherlands Bach Society and forms a duo with harpsichord player Siebe Henstra. Lucia Swarts is also a member of the Chromatic Quartet and Quartetto Amsterdam, and frequently plays in contemporary music groups including the Schönberg Ensemble and the Nieuw Ensemble. She has worked with baroque specialists like Gustave Leonhardt, Ton Koopman and René Jacobs, as well as major figures in modern music performance like Reinbert de Leeuw and Oliver Knussen.