The programme of this album is particularly diverse, with songs accompanied by the Romantic guitar or fortepiano alternating with instrumental works - and entirely in the spirit of 19th-century concerts.

Most of the repertoire here is performed on the instruments that the composer specified, although the central work on this recording is an arrangement of Schubert's Sonata for arpeggione and fortepiano. Schubert composed the sonata in 1824, most probably for the arpeggione virtuoso Vincenz Schuster. The arpeggione was a cross between the cello and the guitar that had been developed barely a year earlier; its popularity did not last, with the result that Schubert's sonata became generally known in arrangements for another solo instrument. Emma Wills and Thomas Boodts have made their own arrangement for this recording.

In the album series "Sounds of the city", Museum Vleeshuis releases recordings inspired by the musical life in Antwerp throughout the centuries. Museum Vleeshuis collects, preserves, researches, and makes accessible musical instruments, stories, craftsmanship and traditions from 500 years of musical life in Antwerp and Flanders. Together with numerous partners, the museum brings its collection to life in concerts and other activities, in the monument Vleeshuis and beyond. The museum inspires people to listen and look, to make music, to compose and to build. In this way, Museum Vleeshuis enriches the perspective of everyone who loves music, and it passes on the material and living music heritage to future generations.