More than the cello concertos – two of which appear here in slimmed-down form – Boccherini’s cello sonatas constantly take the instrument into high violin territory. As Bruno Cocset explains in his note, in order to do the music justice he uses a specially constructed cello by Charles Riché. The results live up to the billing. The instrument itself, with its rich, though never strident, upper register, is superb, and Cocset is a brilliant and expressive player, phrasing inventively and negotiating his flights into the stratosphere with wit and panache.

In the slow movements – above all the soulful Adagio of the Concerto G480, purloined by Grützmacher for his famous Boccherini travesty – he eloquently captures the composer’s distinctive vein of pathos and morbidezza. As for the allegros, if you still regard Boccherini primarily as a purveyor of languid rococo elegance, these earthy, impulsive, sometimes even zany performances should make you think again. In the finales Cocset and his colleagues (including a guitar continuo) play up the Spanish folk associations, especially in the lusty rustic dance, complete with castanet imitations, of the Concerto G480.

Occasionally, as in the first movement of the C major Sonata, G17, and the minuet finale of the B flat Sonata, G565 (also used in Grützmacher’s confection), the players can be dangerously free with rhythm; and here and there – say in the Affetuoso finale of the A major Sonata, G4 – I could have done with a touch more lyrical grace to offset the impetuous energy. But the colour and spontaneity of the performances are exhilarating – indeed, Cocset constantly reminds us that the sonatas probably grew out of Boccherini’s own improvisations.

If you know the originals of the two concertos, you may miss, as I do, the contrasts of solo and tutti in Cocset’s chamber arrangements (tenor violin, cello, double bass and continuo), though the colour of the playing does much to mitigate the potential monotony of texture. The close-miked recording picks up what sounds like Cocset breathing heavily through clenched teeth, slightly distracting at first, though I soon blotted it out.