Luigi Boccherini composed just a single set of sonatas, Op.5, specifically for violin and piano. However, his commercial celebrity and his artistic reputation at the time, as a composer considered in the same breath as Mozart and Haydn, encouraged publishers to commission arrangements of other works. Such arrangements include this set of Sonatas published in London in 1780, made by Thomas Billington but admitted to the catalogue of Boccherini's works as G34-39. Igor Ruhadze and Alexandra Nepomnyashchaya have made the first ever complete recording of this set as a sequel to their 5CD set of Boccherini sonatas (96612) issued by Brilliant Classics in 2023. 'Looking forward to the sequel!' concluded the review in Diapason of that set, after praising the stylish spirit of musicianship and authenticity in the playing of both artists. Compared to their rivals on record, remarked the reviewer, 'the seduction is more demonstrative, the contrasts more accentuated, the sensuality and the feeling more showy.' Today, as Rudolf Rasch's booklet note remarks, we may prefer original works over arranged works; in the 18th century, such a preference was unknown. No one looked down on them. In fact, they made a composer's music accessible for those who could not perform them in their original format. There was hardly a format more accessible for music-making among friends than the violin sonata, in which the piano would take the lion's share of the harmony from the original work, with the principal melody line assigned to the violin. As well as these violin sonatas, Thomas Billington arranged Corelli's concerti grossi for solo keyboard, and composed a good deal of his own music. In these sonatas, he drew from Boccherini's Trios Op.4 and Op.6, Quartets Op.8 and Quintets Op.10. He was in any case emulating the example of Boccherini himself, who made several such arrangements. As always with Boccherini, there is no shortage of attractive melodies and upbeat, galant invention to contrast with the lyrical beauty of the slow movements. - Luigi Boccherini was born in the Italian city of Lucca in Tuscany, on 19 February 1743, the son of Leopoldo Boccherini, a cellist and double-bass player. The young Luigi received his first music lessons from his father and at the Seminario di San Giovanni in Lucca. The cello was to become his instrument. At the age of ten, he was apparently already so advanced that his father sent him to Rome for further studies at the end of 1753, where he possibly remained until 1756. Apart from a brief period in Vienna around 1760, he was in Lucca until he set out to Paris (perhaps the major musical centre of the time) in the spring of 1768. Later that year he would go to Spain, where he would remain for the rest of his life until his death on 28 May 1805. - This new recording is the second volume of the complete violin sonatas, works in which the pianoforte plays a significant role next to the solo violin. - Critical praise for violinist Igor Ruhadze and pianist Alexandra Nepomnyashchaya: 'The early-music world needs more performers like Igor Ruhadze... This is some of the most accomplished historically informed violin playing I have heard in a long time.' Fanfare (Geminiani, 96524). 'Nepomnyashchaya provides a lesson in how one may realize such sonata bass lines. Her accompaniment is varied in texture and detail, balancing right-hand countermelodies with arpeggiated chordal washes of sound and heavy block chords at cadences. Like Ruhadze, she is a consummate specialist in Baroque style and practice.' - 'These musicians make a strong case for the violin-keyboard duo as an artistic medium. 'Strongly recommended for the music itself and for the dedicated, exciting performances.' Fanfare (Locatelli, 94376).

Rarely heard Fandangos combined with known Fandangos. Unique arrangements & improvisation. Unique instrumentation: trombone, recorder, guitar, harpsichord, guitar, percussion. Early music approach to the origins of the popular dance "Fandango"

Classical Music

JEWELS OF THE CLASSICS RICHAR

Includes sonata(s) in d major by Luigi Boccherini. Soloists: Jascha Heifetz, Gregor Piatigorsky.

Classical Music

Oftentimes the all-star games aren't particularly good team events; but anyone who takes that view with regard to this pair of performances by some of the heaviest hitters in the business will miss some glorious music-making! Actually, not all of them are especially heavy, but the simile is apt.

Schubert's Quintet is one of chamber music's greatest treasures, and there have been some grand recordings of it; but the present crowd brings to this reading a degree of intensity, perhaps stemming from the respect and admiration the players clearly feel for one another, that is unique in my experience with this score. You'll find comparable electricity in some of the other stellar versions—most notably on RCA, whose great ensemble is headed by Heifetz; and on CBS/Sony, where a considerably younger Stern does the honors but Casals's presence seems to dominate. Those who prefer to concentrate on the music itself, as opposed to the musicians, will perhaps admire even more the grand ensemble playing achieved by various guests, with such core groups as the Emerson, Hollywood, Guarneri, and Melos Quartets (in two of which recordings Rostro-povich figures). But the present reading easily stands among the best of these, and those who are swayed by superior sound need look no further, for most of the artistically competitive versions I have cited aren't DDD.

The second movement of this quintet is one of the most moving pieces of music I have ever heard, and if it matters to our readership I will confess I had a very hard time getting past it on this CD—I repeated the Adagio five times before 1 allowed the performance to continue, so taken was I with both the work and this reading.

The release is further enhanced by a lovely realization of the original source of Boccherini's ubiquitous Minuet. This E-Major Quintet isn't quite in the same league as the Schubert, but the players' level of commitment is nonetheless comparable. The sound is equally fine, and hearing the whole thing, as opposed to the well-known snippet, is certainly worthwhile—and, as it happens, there's not much competition, other than Denon's version with the Berlin Philharmonia Ensemble. Note that two different times are shown on the cover—64:50 and 76:12. The latter is correct. For the Schubert, then, this is recommended with a degree of fervor that grips me only rarely.

-- John W. Lambert, FANFARE [5/1997]

PIANO QUINTETS

Luigi Boccherini’s contemporaries ranked him with Joseph Haydn, but during later times the high esteem enjoyed by his music faded – when everything of Italian origin that was not an opera was generally dismissed. The young musicians of Scala köln believe that it is high time to reopen Boccherini’s case and are now presenting the results of their new investigation: a delightful program demonstrating that Boccherini’s treasure trove holds more in store than just his famous Minuet. The musicians of Scala koln, led by the violinist Christoph Mayer and the oboist Monika Nielen, bring this music to the stage in fresh new interpretations that are historically informed and feature period instruments. The mixed instrumentation with winds and strings comes with a guarantee of richly varied listening pleasure- boredom is absolutely out of the question!

These quintets come from a set of six in a Madrid manuscript with an attribution to Boccherini: they are not in Boccherini’s own catalogue of his works, which doesn’t necessarily exclude their authenticity (he noted in it most of his true chamber music, though not the cello sonatas or the keyboard ones); they sound as if they date from the 1780s, and the presence of an obbligato cello part does of course imply at least some link with him. This is claimed as their world premiere recording.

They are very agreeable and on the whole deftly written pieces, but to my mind don’t quite have the ring of his style: their formal regularity, their sometimes motivic writing (the first movement of the G major work, for example), and the frequent spells of rather routine invention argue against his authorship, as does the three-movement form (he preferred, oddly, two-movement opere piccole or four-movement opere grande), the absence of minuets (a movement type he patently relished) and the presence of three very schematic variation finales (a type he avoided). The compiler of the Boccherini thematic catalogue thought that they had “formulas and turns of style which are characteristic of him”, on reading through the parts, but since he evidently didn’t notice that they were for flute, violin, viola and two cellos (as opposed to flute and string quartet) I am inclined to think the reading-through wasn’t too rigorous.

By Boccherini or not, they make pleasant listening. They don’t demand that special affection for detail or feeling for texture that the most characteristic Boccherini needs, and respond well to these direct, modern performances, neatly phrased, the dialogues gracefully executed. The first cellist, who has several flights into the upper reaches of his instrument, is very assured, and there is also the particular pleasure of Jean-Pierre Rampal’s flute playing, as urbane as ever.

-- Stanley Sadie. Gramophone [8/1998]

Edition Luigi Boccherini: String Quartets - String Quintets

Edition Luigi Boccherini: Guitar Quintets

Edition Luigi Boccherini: Symphonies

Edition Luigi Boccherini: Divertimenti - Oboe Quintets

Tafelmusik are a Canadian period-instrument group who bring plenty of spirit and enthusiasm to their performances. I have chiefly heard them before in baroque repertory, to which their rather direct and even slightly edgy tone may be better suited than it is to the more suave Boccherini. The B flat Symphony they offer here, Op. 21 No. 4 in Boccherini's numbering, is not to my knowledge otherwise available; the chief interest resides in the first movement, a typically exuberant piece, full of repeated notes and dashing off every now and then into brilliant semiquaver passages, though there is some characteristically charming pathetic music in the andantino. The players here make a hairsbreadth pause before each accent in the first movement (and there are rather a lot of them), which seems to me disturbing to the rhythm. They also offer the D minor Symphony, La casa del diavolo, based in part on Gluck's Dance of the Furies from Orphee. They play the first movement at a tremendous speed and with great vigour, the slow movement rather dully and the finale, again, very fast and duly diabolically. Here, however, they run into competition with the disc by Ensemble 415 (Harmonia Mundi), which offers a superior performance; tighter and more controlled, more graceful as well as sweeter-toned in the middle movement and less reliant on breathtaking thrills to make the fast movements effective.

But with Anner Bylsma playing two concertos, this is certainly a disc to be considered seriously. His performance of the G major work is far more appealing than that of the relatively staid Wouter Willer on the EMI disc cited above, its quick movements quicker, its slow movement slower— and played with remarkable control (you cannot hear the changes of bow) and with much poetry. And there is some dazzling playing at the very top of the instrument in the finale. The D major work is perhaps slightly more ordinary, but that vein of pathos is again much in evidence in the andante lentarello (a typical Boccherini marking, whatever it may mean), where the cello duets with a solo oboe. A record, then, that in spite of some flaws the Boccherinian will want to have.

-- Stanley Sadie, Gramophone [2/1990]