A forgotten name from the classical era. He posthumously earned the cruel nickname "Haydn's wife" among 19th century society when traditional classical music had died out.

Okay, he is not to everybody's tastes and may strike some as being a little too similar to Haydn and Mozart (the late 18th century wasn't exactly known for its great musical variety), but I think he carries an appeal all his own.

His works sound particularly beautiful when faithfully performed with period instruments which really bring out the emotion in masterpieces like his Cello Concerto in D Major.

So I just want to show my appreciation for a great composer who really deserves more love.

Not quite forgotten. The minuet from the String Quintet in E has been used in a number of popular venues including animated cartoons if I recall correctly.

I like his work a bit more than Mozart's (I know that's like blasphemy!) and almost as much as Haydn's. I consider him a worthy successor to Vivaldi. My favorite Boccherini works that I am familiar with may be the guitar quintets. I find this a pleasant combination for a chamber group, the guitar taking away some of the scratchiness I perceive in solo bowed instruments.

He was also very prolific. Yes, I think Boccerini is certainly underrated.

All contemporaries of Haydn and Mozart are completely overshadowed by those two giants. But I wouldn't say that Boccherini is forgotten. As far as instrumental music is concerned he's probably the number three guy. I would say that much of his music has a sound of it's own, probably because he spend much of his life in Madrid and not in, say, Vienna. You can hear that Spanish influence in a lot of his music.

I know him, I listen to him, I like him. A lot. Cello concertos, chamber music, even symphonies. Good stuff. Is he famous? He definitively have not too recognizeable name, but, like Weston mentioned, his menuet is must-be position on every "best of classical" album. By the way, he is the only one cellist-composer that I'm aware of.

Well, he's not so famous that the average guy in the street will recognize his name. But I think that people who are interested in the music from this era know who he is.

Oh don't get me wrong, there probably isn't a single person on Earth who hasn't heard that infamous minuet, I just think it's interesting that he was considered a major composer in his time, but has since been either ridiculed or ignored by posterity.

It's all the more puzzling considering how accessible his music is too.

One of my favorite classical era composer. He is like Haydn but with some Spanish element (in his Guitar quintet set) and cellist virtuosic (in Cello quintet set). He was employed in Italy, Spanish and Prussia and this given him a vast variety of styles.

Fortunatelly he is not largely forgotten as many of his pieces are widely recorded. I've many of his chamber works.