92892 boccherini bl by Klassiek.nl

Boccherini Guitar Quintets complete

Eros Roselli, guitar La Magnifica Comunità

Luigi Boccherini CD 1

CD 2

Quintetto I in D Minor G. 445 1. Allegro moderato 2. Cantabile 3. Minuetto 4. Allegro assai

8’00 4’33 4’39 5’22

Quintetto III in B Flat Major G.447 5. Allegro moderato 6. Tempo di Minuetto 7. Adagio 8. Allegro Quintetto V in D major G.449 9. Andantino pausato 10. Minuetto (Allegro) 11. Allegro giusto 12. Andantino pausato con variazioni Quintetto VI in G Major G. 450 13. Allegro con vivacità 14. Andantino lento 15. Tempo di Minuetto 16. Allegretto 2

Total time

(1743-1805)

Quintetto IV in D Major G. 448 “Fandango” 1. Pastorale 2. Allegro maestoso 3. Grave assai 4. Fandango

4’26 6’38 1’32 5’37

5’36 5’01 5’04 6’20

Quintetto II in E Major G.446 5. Maestoso assai 6. Adagio 7. Allegretto 8. Polacca. Tempo di Minuetto

8’19 2’03 3’03 5’50

5’30 3’11 3’01

Quintetto in C Major G.453 “La Ritirata di Madrid” 9. Allegro maestoso assai 10. Andantino 11. Allegretto 12. Maestoso e lento (La Ritirata di Madrid)

7’52 4’22 3’11 4’14 3’47 80’03

Total time

10’58 6’13 6’08 6’53 68’01

During his lifetime Luigi Boccherini was the most important composer of instrumental music in southern Europe. With his chamber compositions he played a crucial role in the transition from the late Baroque, which ended around 1750, to the birth of the fullygrown classical style around 1780. This role was a combination of adapting to changing circumstances and influencing these by the quality of his work. From the outset he was recognized as a great and influential musician. This didn’t necessarily result in an easy career, but his fame was solid and remained so after his death, even when his style got out of fashion. Essential for the structure of stereotype baroque music is first of all the basso continuo: the bass line also indicates the harmony of the chord above it and the harmonic process within a phrase. Secondly, to put it negatively, comes the tyranny of the bar-lines, or, to put it more positively, a clear division within a bar and phrases between notes with strong and light accents. The barline in combination with the phrasing serves as a confirmation of the central key and tonality. The key notes of the melody not only emphasize the tonality, but allow room for improvisation and ornamentation. Expression is partly the result of specific gestures which have a meaning known to the wider music-loving audiences. In classical music the basso continuo disappeared in favour of a more contrapuntal structure based on melody and accompaniment. The melody became more elaborate leaving hardly any opportunity for improvisation and ornamentation. The harmonic processes inherent to tonality became more codified. Rhythm and phrasing just as harmony became more regularized with as its main source of inspiration dance and folk music. Boccherini lived in Italy till 1770. As a child he travelled with his father to Vienna and Paris where he gave some concerts. Like most composers at the time, he worked in the service of a ruler, in his case as a cello player in Lucca. In 1768 Paris, which at the time was a centre for the publication of new music, saw the earliest publications of his chamber works. His appointment as a musician in the Lucca court orchestra allowed him to travel and in 1768 he visited the court of Aranjuez in Spain with an Italian opera company. He settled in Aranjuez but because the ruling prince decided that Boccherini’s newly written music could only be published in his territory, the composer looked for another employer which he ultimately found in Berlin, where he was appointed ‘compositeur de notre chambre’ by Prince Wilhelm of Prussia. In 1797 Prince Wilhelm’s successor refused to take the 3

composer as his employee and to give him a pension, as a result of which Boccherini lived in poverty for several years. He nevertheless continued to compose and to publish, because at the time copyright did not yet exist and composers were not paid at all for performances of their works. In 1800 Boccherini returned to Madrid where the French ambassador in Spain served as his patron and where he died in 1805. Very characteristic for most of his chamber music is its light-heartedness. He was a supreme master in a genre once described as ‘aristocratic party music’. In his compositions he liked to repeat short phrases, to derive melodies from chords, to mould danceable rhythms into beautiful lines. In contrast to most composers in Germany and Austria and more in accordance with his colleagues in Italy and Spain he was more interested in the clear beauty of a melody than in the hidden perfection of counterpoint and structure. Nevertheless, like his northern counterparts he saw the sonata form as a useful tool and accepted the division into exposition - development - recapitulation, but preferred a clear feeling for rhythm and melody. In dealing with this form, he was far from academic and behaved according to the standard which by the way was formulated only long after Boccherini’s death. His compositional creativity and practical experience as a string player is clear in his selective use of double stops, dynamic accents and original performance tricks. One could say that during his lifetime the character of his music could partly be explained by his isolated position in Spain far from the composing crowds of European musical life Paris and Vienna. In retrospect one admires his unique blend of originality and certainty.

Guitar Quintets Boccherini’s guitar quintets, published around 1800, almost certainly are arrangements of other pieces by Boccherini. The first three are transcriptions of piano quintets, the others are derived from pieces for different combinations of instruments. Most likely the composer arranged them at the request of his publisher Pleyel and took as his prime sources the piano quintets opus 57 because the piano quintets opus 56 were already reserved for someone else, the Marquis de Benavente. The change from piano to guitar had great consequences for the balance between the instruments and the role of the guitar in the new formation. For the audience the guitar is less audible than the violin, viola and cello. The piano can behave much more as a solo instrument, while the guitar functions more as the old basso continuo: more a harmonic foundation for the other instruments than an equal part within a polyphonic structure. Boccherini’s preference for a clear beautiful melody in combination with a strong bass line finds an ideal medium in the ensemble of guitar with string quartet. Boccherini would have described all the quintets on this cd as ‘grande’ which mean that they contain four movements with fully developed thematic material. This didn’t prevent him from writing quintets with very different movements in a very different order. In most pieces (not all) the first and last movements are in a fast tempo and an exuberant mood. Especially in the centre sections the characters can greatly differ. The most remarkable movement is the final one of the fifth piece. It is a theme plus eight variations, followed by a brief repetition of the preceding movement. The theme is a good example of Boccherini’s interest in Spanish folk music; the structure of a dance rhythm with variations resembles the several fandangos he wrote for different combinations. The great variety in sound and rhythm within the variations not only illustrates Boccherini’s fascination for sound as such, it inspired another Italian master of sound, Luciano Berio (1925-2003), to compose a brilliant orchestration of the work. It also shows the peaceful cohabitation of serious and popular music. The guitar belonged to the domain of Spanish folk music and was therefore regarded with disrespect by the Spanish nobility, the string quartet by contrast was the hallmark of nobility. That this cohabitation was possible, proved to which extent the classical style has its roots in folk music. Emanuel Overbeeke 5

Eros Roselli Eros Roselli graduated in Guitar with Maestro Ruggero Chiesa and then he completed his studies with A. Gilardino, E. Fisk, M. Barrueco e D. Russell. He won several international awards such as Concorso Internazionale “F.Sor” in Rome, Premio Inter-nacional “S. A. R. la Infanta Doña Cristina” in Madrid e Concurso Internacional “M. Canals” in Barcelona. Roselli performed worldwide in the main concert halls and festivals and his recordings of works by Giuliani, Paganini, Bach, Sor, Diabelli, granted him recognition in the most important magazines, newspapers, radio and televisions. In 1995 he founded the Arilica ensemble, a group devoted to the rediscovering and valorisation of the repertoire of chamber music with Guitar, especially of the Italian music of the early 19th Century. In this respect he collaborates with highly respected musicians such as the members of the ensemble La Magnifica Comunità with whom he regularly performs in important concerts and festivals.

La Magnifica Comunità The instrumental baroque ensemble La Magnifica Comunità was founded in 1990. The members of the ensemble are deeply convinced of the importance of philological and stylistical research in order to understand the music of bygone ages. The ensemble perfected their studies at prestigious institutions like the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, Accademia Musicale Pescarese, Accademia Chigiana di Siena, Scuola di Musica Fiesole, Accademia Musicale di Villecroze. Primarius and leader of the ensemble is Enrico Casazza. La Magnifica Comunita perform in different formations, ranging from trio to chamber orchestra, also collaborating with choir. The ensemble gave numerous concerts in Italy and other European countries, among which a successful debut in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, to high critical and public acclaim.

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