A disc due out next month from the London Handel Players is seeking to revive the reputation of 18th-century Italian composer Francesco Geminiani, 250 years after his death.

A contemporary of Handel, Geminiani is better known to musicians today for his writings about performance – particularly his violin method book of 1751 The Art of Playing on the Violin – rather than his actual compositions. According to Adrian Butterfield, violinist with the London Handel Players, 'Francesco Geminiani, like Johann Joachim Quantz and Leopold Mozart, is one of those musical figures of the past who has had the misfortune to be known rather better for his writings about the performance of music, interesting though they are, than for his actual compositions. We hope that this premiere complete recording of Geminiani's Op 1 Sonatas will bring his delightful music to a wider audience 250 years after his death.'

The sonatas themselves have reached modern musicians in three complete versions: as a set of 12 Solo Violin Sonatas (1716), a second edition with ornamentation and fingerings added (1739), and the third (1757) is a transcription of them all as trio sonatas for two violins and continuo. Geminiani also arranged some of the movements for solo harpsichord, while contemporaries made arrangements for flute and recorder. The recording includes selections from all these versions - sometimes more than one version of the same piece.

A particular point of interest, says Butterfield, is that 'The ornamentation added to the 1739 version is particularly surprising as its manner is closer to the French style than the Italian. That Geminiani was an 18th-century Italian musician who became increasingly fascinated and influenced by the French style is something that seems to be without parallel at that time.'

But, he concludes, 'our principal hope is to convince the listener of the beauty and expressiveness of Geminiani's music which compares very favourably with his contemporary, Handel, with whom he performed for King George I in 1714.'

The disc was recorded in St Mary's Church, Walthamstow in February, and is released on Somm next month.