Boccherini's Dream transports us to scenes of summer sunshine, where balmy breezes warm sun-kissed faces, and spell-bound moths buzz around flickering lamps during late evening alfresco gatherings on the piazza. This is a world that Luigi Boccherini knew and loved. Like Boccherini, in his time as a talented cellist, the two interpreters convey joy and wonder with their fresh and joyful playing of the works by Supriani, Pasquini, Cabezón, Storace and Luigi Boccherini. The Parisian violinist Jean-Baptiste Cartier is reported to have said in 1798: "If God wanted to speak to man through music, he would do so with the works of Haydn; but if he wanted to hear music himself, he would undoubtedly choose the works of Boccherini". So let's start dreaming with this music like God on the Mediterranean!

The guitar duo Siempre Nuevo was founded in 2007 by two outstanding Czech guitarists Matej Freml and Patrik Vacík during their studies at the Hochschule für Music Franz Liszt in Weimar. These top chamber players are regularly invited to various concerts and festivals. Siempre Nuevo plays original compositions as well as adaptations for two guitars. Their repertoire includes an equal measure of works of the renaissance, baroque and classical period right up to compositions of the romantic and contemporary periods. Both musicians increasingly use historical instruments, which give the older pieces, especially classical pieces, a unique, authentic sound. This diversity and the fresh, expressive interpretations often were subject of praise from audiences and critics. Now they present their fourth album with carefully compiled pieces that have been the most popular of their repertoire, and that have the audience always wanted to hear.

There's always room in the catalog for enterprising budget-priced performances like these. The string quartets of Luigi Boccherini, though perhaps not as historically significant as his quintets, are engaging and under-valued pieces. If you want to try out a representative selection at minimal cost, you'll find this Naxos disc nicely fits the bill. The Borciani Quartet was formed in 1984 and named after the group's teacher, Paolo Borciani, who was the founding leader of Quartetto Italiano. In these performances the Borcianis successfully emulate the famous clarity and refinement of their models, providing assured, imaginative readings of the first two quartets from Boccherini's Op. 32 set--the best known and most frequently performed of the Boccherini quartets. All six were recorded on period instruments by the Esterházy Quartet for Teldec in 1976. That fine survey had the advantage of completeness, and the lighter instrumental textures brought pleasing clarity and immediacy. However, the Borcianis' well-prepared and naturally spontaneous accounts are equally well played, and the Naxos sound is certainly superior. Better still is the Borciani Quartet's splendid reading of the more substantial A major work, a polished and cultured performance made more compelling by energetically pointed rhythms and marked dynamic contrasts, which listeners will best appreciate during the lyrically expressive slow movement. An excellent disc all round. --Michael Jameson, ClassicsToday.com

Inventive, aromatic and breezy.

As the recording date suggests, this disc is a reissue. It was originally released by Italian label Dynamic in 1995 (CDS111) as the first of three Boccherini volumes by the Venezia (or Venice) Quartet. At the time this was the Quartet's first commercial recording, and the first of ten for the label, including for example the complete quartets of Malipiero.
 
Happily, the Quartet are still making music - these days they even have their own Facebook page! - with three of the four musicians here still going strong in 2012, Giancarlo di Vacri having replaced Luca Morassutti as violist in 2010. Perhaps their most significant recording in recent years was the complete quartets of Luigi Cherubini on 3 CDs for Decca (476 3604, 2010). It should be said that none of this information is available in the accompanying booklet, which for some reason eschews performer biographies. Nor will it be found on Dynamic's less than exemplary website - the "online catalogue" promised in the booklet lists nearly 400 items but they can only be viewed ten at a time scrolling down through a small window! There is therefore no news there as to why this CD has been re-released now, other than that it constitutes Volume 27 in an apparently random series entitled 'Delizie Musicali' ('Musical Delights'). The original disc is still widely available on the internet.
 
Nevertheless, the Dynamic catalogue is laden with musical delights, and Boccherini's op.8 falls easily into that category. As far as his Quartets go, this set is inexplicably neglected, having been only rarely recorded. Spanish label Columna Música issued the Artaria Quartet's account of them only two years ago (1CM0221, two CDs), but there is little other competition, not even at the individual quartet level. This, then, counts as an important recording for string quartet lovers everywhere.
 
The first Quartet in D gets straight down to the business of being inventive, aromatic and breezy. The Venezia Quartet are in their element for the next 75 minutes, turning on the style and, taking full advantage of Boccherini's predilection for demonstrative markings in the scores - the second movement of the A major Quartet is marked 'Amoroso', for example - the expressive phrasing to communicate Boccherini's mellifluous, immaculately fashioned ideas. Boccherini was a renowned cellist, and he unsurprisingly gives his instrument a lot of virtuosic turns. Actually these are 'new school' Quartets, where the parts are divided fairly and squarely, and all four members of the Venezia get plenty of time in the sun. Boccherini's elegance is more than skin-deep, though, and the lively, witty radiance for which he is rightly famed alternates frequently with sections or indeed whole movements that are more introverted, darker, serene.
 
Sound quality is good for the mid-Nineties - just a little raw-edged by current standards, but nevertheless perfectly acceptable. Dynamic's booklets are a bit hit-and-miss: sometimes they are quite good, other times rather too minimalist. Love it or leave it, the cover graphic is by Martha Pilarz, no doubt related to Daniela Pilarz, Dynamic's resident translator. The brief notes are by the now-deceased Paganini authority Edward Neill, Italian despite his name, and whose own label morphed into Dynamic in the late 1970s. Daniela's translation into English does have a few odd turns of phrase as usual, as well as one or two errors, both by translator - such as "Mittleuropean" for 'central European' - and, presumably, by Neill, who states that Mozart was fifteen in 1769.
 
-- Byzantion, MusicWeb International

Shortly after Luigi Boccherini’s death on 28 May 1805, two journalists in Leipzig and Paris agreed that he had been “an excellent cellist capable of bewitching audiences with the incomparable sound and expressive melody of his instrument” and “a wonderful cellist. He especially charmed us with his incomparable sonority and the very expressive song of his instrument.” However, posterity in the nineteenth century was most unkind to him, allowing him to “survive” thanks to a Minuet chosen at random, transposed for and endlessly churned out by every possible instrument (and even the voice), a somewhat “doctored” concerto, and finally editions of a small batch of “sonatas for cello and piano” adorned with an improbable arsenal of technical and performance markings far removed from the Boccherinian spirit. Bruno Cocset pays tribute to one of the precursors of the Golden Age of the cello by recording five sonatas based on the manuscripts of the extensive Noseda Collection of the Milan Conservatory. He is accompanied by his partners from Les Basses Reunies, Maude Gratton , Bertrand Cuiller (harpsichord), Emmanuel Jacques (cello continuo) and Richard Myron.

BOCCHERINI: Guitar Quintets, Vol. 3

BOCCHERINI: Guitar Quintets, Vol. 1

Boccherini’s guitar quintets are arrangements prepared from material originally used in a cycle of piano quintets, written in Madrid during the final years of the eighteenth century. Although Boccherini received support from then French ambassador Lucien Bonaparte, contemporary reports suggest that the years prior to his death in 1805 were spent in abject poverty. Nevertheless, he remained as musically productive as ever, and the works recorded here are typically fresh and inventive.

The Oratorio Gioas re di Giuda, “a Sacred Drama,” was probably the first important symphonic-choral work by Boccherini, composed during the years 1764-1765 for performances in Lucca, the musician’s native town. After his studies in Rome and his successes in Vienna, where his brother GianGastone worked as a dancer and also as librettist for Haydn, Boccherini returned to Lucca and applied to join the Cappella Palatina. Shortly afterwards, Boccherini again began touring Europe in a Duo together with his friend Filippo Manfredi, concertmaster of the Lucca orchestra: they went first to Genoa- where evidence suggests performances of his first two oratorios- then to Paris and finally Madrid. Metastasio’s libretto for Gioas is based on one of the numerous struggles for the control of Jerusalem. Athalia usurps power after having assassinated David’s last descendants. Saved by a miracle, the youngest one, Joash, is reared in the temple by the wife of Jehoiada, the high priest. The drama opens when Ismael (one of the Levite leaders) is informed of the plan to overthrow the usurper. At the same time Athalia, with the help of her minister, Mattan, summons Sebia, unfortunate mother of the victims, in the hope of convincing her to present a false heir to the people of Israel. In Part Two, Jehoiada succeeds in thwarting the evil plan of treacherous Athalia and her wicked counselor, Mattan. Jehoiada finally overthrows the tyrants and offers Joash the throne to great jubilation of the people.

Luigi Boccherini is now best known for his chamber music, which is handsomely represented on Brilliant Classics in recordings by period-instrument ensembles. However, as part of his duties to the royal courts of Europe in which he made his long and distinguished career, Boccherini also wrote operas and zarzuelas – popular Spanish musical theatre – of which few examples survive. There are 18 extant, standalone concert arias, of unknown date, though probably composed between 1786 and 1792. Six of them are presented here, all composed for soprano, and all bold and technically challenging works which would fit within the opera seria genre. The texts are by Metastasio, prolific librettist of the period, whose classically-themed dramas were set by Salieri and Mozart, among many other composers. Sung texts are included in the booklet. The soloist on this recording is the Spanish soprano Sandra Pastrana, who has appeared in all the major Italian opera houses.

Among the motivations of this disc, the most important one is the wish to present the various styles and periods in a clear, simple way, endeavoring to avoid superabundance and the accumulation of crossover deposits that are often heard where it seems that the music of the past cannot be self-sufficient and needs an extra chromatic and rhythmic shove in order to catch the listeners’ attention, inducing them to compare it with the commercial, repetitive entertainment repertoire. In this musical journey between Italy and Spain of the Baroque era, Paolo Rigano on the archlute and baroque guitar and Cinzia Guarino on the harpsichord are interpreting a singular anthology of pieces enriching the playing through the practice of the basso continuo that marked the entire musical period from the Renaissance to the late Baroque.

“One of the most important advantages that the Luxembourg citizen has when abroad is that linguistically and culturally we embrace both the German and the French cultures...This gives a Luxemburger, particularly one active in the arts or the cultural environment, a different outlook and approach,” suggested Luxembourg composer Alexander Müllenbach in an interview. Perhaps it is this different perspective, the quite individual, open approach, that Françoise Groben herself had, a quality that she brought to her performance of German and French compositions for the cello. And it is for that reason that Banque Générale de Luxembourg placed at her disposal an exquisite instrument built by Matteo Goffriller in 1695.

Françoise Groben was born in Luxembourg on December 4, 1965. She received her first lessons in the cello at the age of five at the city’s Conservatoire, studying there with Francine Weber-Deprelle, Jean Join und Georges Mallach. She eventually completed her studies with Boris Pergamenschikov at the Cologne Musikhochschule, graduating in her concert examination, while continuing to attend master classes given by such artists as Daniil Shafran in Moscow or William Pleeth in London, or by the Amadeus Quartet. From 1974 onwards she was a member of the ensemble Les Musiciens founded by her father, Joseph Groben, and was only 15 when she first played in the Youth Orchestra of the European Union, going on to perform under such conductors as Claudio Abbado, Daniel Barenboim, Herbert von Karajan and Georg Solti. The recordings collected here illustrate the entire spectrum of Françoise Groben’s artistic interests, demonstrating that she was not only a leading soloist but also a gifted and coveted chamber musician who regularly included pieces by Luxembourg composers in her programs and was strongly committed to contemporary female composers.

The 24-year-old Boccherini’s departure from his native Lucca in 1767 proved to be the making of him. By 1770 he had become court composer and cellist to the royal chamber of Prince Luis Antonio de Borbón, youngest son of Philip V of Spain. The ensemble at his disposal must have included an excellent flautist, for he wrote several sets of chamber music in which the flute plays the starring role, including the Quintets, Op.17 in 1773, and the Quintets, Op.19 in 1774, all dedicated to Prince Luis. The writing for the flute is orchestral in nature, as if these were concertos in disguise, with rapier-like dialogue between the two violin parts. All 12 works follow the same two-movement formal pattern, with a moderately quick opener followed by a more graceful dance, except for Op.19 No.6, subtitled ‘Las parejas’ (The Couples) after the ceremonial horse parade of the same name that was held at the Aranjuez palace every spring; its movement titles (Entrada-Marcia, Galope and Entrada-Marcia) reflect the different sections of the event. The Op.55 Flute Quintets on album 3 date from 1797, having been written with an especially talented flautist/oboist in mind. By then Boccherini was set up in Madrid with a generous pension, Prince Luis having died some years earlier, as composer to separate courts in Osuna and Prussia. These later works enjoy a more relaxed temperament, by and large, though the solo writing for the flute is still highly florid and expressive even in the more stately movements such as the grave Lento to conclude Op.55 No.5.

Luigi Boccherini occupies a special place in cellists' hearts: he must have been a phenomenal player, and, happily, he was also a composer. His exceptional knowledge of the technical possibilities of the cello helped him create a completely knew sound-palette This is particularly evident in his chamber music, with its splendid vocalic lines, often revealing an undertone of melancholy, combined with impressive virtuosity, and with a wink or a smile appearing now and then from under the surface. The settings are very varied: not only calling for two celli, but also for two violas, and for a wide variety of solo instruments with string quartet: violin, oboe and guitar.

REVIEWS:
"...The concertos are fascinating works, written for the composer's own use, exploiting the possibilities of the instrument fully....Tim Hugh...is very polished and confident and not afraid to put some feeling into his work. His tone is superb..." - American Record Guide (7-8/00, p.96)