Boccherini Fandango

Josetxu Obregón and La Ritirata bring us an update on 18th-century cello music and performance in Spain with their latest Glossa CD. The selection made by this exciting cellist provides a sample of pieces which would have been heard in Spain during the infancy of the instrument and in the period leading into the Age of the Enlightenment. Such was the popularity of the cello many composers and virtuosi came from elsewhere to perform, either passing through Spain or settling there for life, as did Luigi Boccherini and Domingo Porretti (a cello concerto from the latter is performed here).

Published in Paris in 1768, the Sei Sonate, Op. 5 (G 25-30), are Boccherini's first compositions for keyboard, probably inspired by the playing of their dedicatee Mme. Brillon de Jouy, who Charles Burney considered to be one of the greatest keyboard players in Europe at that time. Boccherini met her while staying in Paris in 1767-1768 (from whence he had intended to go to London).

Published in Paris in 1768, the Sei Sonate, Op. 5 (G 25-30), are Boccherini's first compositions for keyboard, probably inspired by the playing of their dedicatee Mme. Brillon de Jouy, who Charles Burney considered to be one of the greatest keyboard players in Europe at that time. Boccherini met her while staying in Paris in 1767-1768 (from whence he had intended to go to London). This intimate friend of Benjamin Franklin Owned several harpsichords and 'new' pianos, including one sent from London by Johann Christian Bach, similar to the square piano made by Frederick Beck recorded here. Violinist Liana Mosca began studying her instrument at the Suzuki Talent Center in Turin. She received her degree at the Milan Conservatory, and began winning international competitions in 1987. She has recorded for several labels, and currently teaches at the Accademia Suzuki in Turin and is a Teacher Trainer with the Italian Suzuki Institute.

Although vocal music accounts for only a small part of Luigi Boccherini’s works, his Stabat Mater in F minor, G532, is one of the most exquisite settings of this sequence from the 13th century. The first version is recorded here; it is scored for soprano and string quintet and dates from 1781. It captivates the listener by the intimacy of Boccherini’s musical language which is particularly suited to the contemplative poetry depicting Mary’s anguish during her Son’s crucifixion. One could wish for no better performer of this subtle sacred music than the incomparable Dorothee Mields; she is accompanied by the Salagon Quartet augmented by double bass. The recording is complemented by Mozart’s String Quartet in E flat major, K428, and the Salve Regina by Felix Mendelssohn: composed in 1824, it is frequently considered one of the youthful composer’s best works.

Firstly, this album represents a welcome return to the studio, and the recording catalogues, of the Russian violinist Mark Lubotsky. In English-speaking countries, Lubotsky is renowned as the soloist on Britten’s Decca recording of the Violin Concerto: a performance of idiomatic sweep which fully bears out the composer’s claim that ‘this is the performance I have been waiting for.’ He worked with all the great Russian conductors of his generation such as Kondrashin, Svetlanov and Rozhdestvensky.

Few musicians today possess so much awareness and experience with the music of Luigi Boccherini as Emilio Moreno, or can invest their performances with so much insight. With his ensemble La Real Cámara and for his seventh recording of Boccherini s music for Glossa, Moreno has now turned to the set of six string trios or Terzettini, Op 47 scored untypically for Boccherini for violin, viola and cello written when he was in full maturity both in his compositional activity and in his own skills as a cellist.

Different stages in the life of Luigi Boccherini are clearly mapped out in the music he wrote. None more so than the 6 String Trios, Op 34 written during the nine-year period when the composer left precarious Madrid, around 1781, for the tranquillity of Arenas de San Pedro, nearer Ávila, as he followed his patron, the Infante Luis de Borbón, in the latter s banishment from the Spanish court.