18th century Italian composers whose principal instrument was not the keyboard often produced collections of harpsichord music to demonstrate their versatility and bring their music to a wider audience. Francesco Geminiani, a great violin virtuoso of his time, also enjoyed a fruitful career as a composer and teacher. He published the first of two keyboard collections, Pieces de Clavecin , in 1743.

Although Geminiani's music has been largely overshadowed by that of more famous colleagues including Vivaldi, he was capable of great originality and beauty, as evidenced in Lanfranco's intelligent and engaging performance.