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...

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.