95302
Boccherini
String Quartets Op.26
Ensemble Symposium
Luigi Boccherini: Six String Quartets G.195-200 The Italian violoncello virtuoso and composer Luigi Boccherini (1743-1805) wrote the six string quartets G.195-200 during the years he spent at Las Arenas, near Madrid, as part of the entourage of the Infante Don Luis (1727-1785). The Infante was the brother of the King of Spain Charles III. Boccherini remained in service of Don Luis as compositore and virtuoso di camera from 1770 to the death of the Infante, in 1785. During this period, Boccherini was required to compose three sets of six pieces each every year (generally string trios, quartets or quintets). Boccherini maintained a catalogue of his own works, which unfortunately was lost during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). Louis Picquot (1804-1870) had a chance to copy and publish it in 1851 in his book Notice sur la vie et les ouvrages de Luigi Boccherini suivie du Catalogue raisonné. In his own catalogue, Boccherini identified Op.26 with the third group of compositions for the year 1778, which included the quartets G.195-200. Unfortunately, we do not know any extant autograph manuscript of this music. In a letter written to the editor Artaria in 1780, Boccherini answered to a proposal of publication by offering this set, along with several other works: in the letter, the author described this group of quartettini as Op.32. This change of opus number could have been motivated by the deliberate attempt to make these works appear as recently composed, or by a reorganization of the catalogue. Eventually, former Op.26 made its first public appearance in Wien in 1781, published by Artaria as Op.32. This new opus number clashes with the Op.32 already listed in Boccherini’s own catalogue, correspondent to a set of string quartets Opera grande in four movements (except quartet No.3, in three movements), now catalogued as G.201206: this set was also published by Artaria in 1781, as Op.33. Even more puzzling, the set of quartets Op.22 (G.183-188) was published in Paris by La Chevardiere as Op.26. The Quartetto della Scala, probably relying on La Chevardiere edition, recorded the G.183-188 quartets some forty years ago, advertising them as Op.26 (Durium, MaAL 80006, 1974). In this little forest of dates and opus numbers, the only information we can rely on beyond any ambiguity is the catalogue number G.195-200, assigned by Yves Gérard to the compositions here presented. 2
This album is the first integral recording of this set by a string quartet; nonetheless, this is not a world première for these compositions. Along with the publications of the three known editions (as Op.32) by Artaria (Wien, 1781), Schmid (Amsterdam, c.1785) and Le Duc (Paris, c.1790), two manuscripts, based on these quartets, were prepared by an unknown piano enthusiast. One set is an arrangement for two keyboards (G.76), and the second is an arrangement for keyboard and string trio (G.259): both versions were probably copied by the same hand. These works originated in the end of 18th Century, during the last part of the regency of the Elector of Saxony Friedrich August (1763-1806), who owned (and perhaps commissioned) several others, all of them preserved at the Sächsische Landesbibliothek of Dresden. The arrangements of G.195-200 received specific attention in recent years, as proved by the appearance of three recordings. The version for two keyboards G.76 was published in an arrangement for two harpsichords (W. Christie and C. Rousset; Harmonia Mundi, HMA 1951233, 1985), and also for piano duo (A. Clemente and S. Piolanti; Tactus, TC 740209, 2011). The arrangement G.259, entitled Six Quatuors pour le clavecin ou pianoforte, violon, viola et basse obligé composés par Luigi Boccherini, was recorded by the Spanish ensemble La Real Cámara (A. Schoonderwoerd, E. Moreno, A. Clares, M. Ruiz; Glossa, GDC 920312, 2012). The fine renditions of these two intriguing arrangements aroused our curiosity, and we were surprised to discover that there was no available recording of the original string quartet setting, which represented the Composer’s original idea (nevertheless, some of these quartets appeared separately in collections of other Boccherini’s works). During the editing process and the rehearsals, curiosity became astonishment and finally turned into a gratifying sense of serendipity. Despite the numerous publications regarding Boccherini and the intense ongoing research activity dedicated to his life and works, the presence of Boccherini’s music in the concert programs is still marginal. Quartets G.195-200 are included in the group of works that Boccherini named as Opera piccola, which literally means “small work”. Boccherini composed 46 3
quartettini, organized in nine sets starting with Op.15 (G.177-182), and followed by Op.22 (G.183-188, mentioned before in relation to the Quartetto della Scala’s 1974 recording), Op.26 (G.195-200), Op.33 (G.207-212), Op.42 (G.216-217), Op.43 (G.218-219), Op.44 (G.220-225), Op.48 (G.226-231), and Op.53 (G.236-241). The two-movement quartets represent about fifty percent of Boccherini’s whole string quartet production, which consists of 91 quartets; the remaining half is represented by the Opera grande works, shared between a minority of 12 four-movement quartets, and further 33 quartets in three movements. The size of the Opera piccola works G.195-200 is indeed relatively small, with a structure composed of two movements: a first movement in forma sonata invariably followed by a Minuetto with its Trio. The tempo indications range from Larghetto to Allegro vivace. By grouping the quartets two by two in three blocks, it is possible to observe a macro-structure within the whole set, with a triple alternation of a scheme of fast-(menuet+trio)-slow(menuet+trio). In the first block, the Allegro Moderato in G.195 is followed by a 12/8 Larghetto of G.196. Interestingly, the fastest movement (the 4/4 Allegro vivace which opens G.197) is placed in the central block, almost in the middle of the whole set, and could be considered a point of climax. This climax gradually fades through the following Larghetto (G.198), towards the last block of the set, formed by the Allegretto (G.199) and the gloomy and pre-romantic Andante appassionato ma non lento (G.200). The choice of dividing his chamber works between Opera grande and Opera piccola was mainly intended for publishing purposes, as small sets were cheaper to engrave and print, and certainly easier to sell. This distinction could lead to think that the small works were of minor importance, and deemed inferior by the author himself, but it is quite the contrary: the reduced size of the pieces forced Boccherini to insert a number of precious details, which denote a paramount attention to rhythmic inlays and to timbre. Boccherini himself wrote in the aforementioned letter to Artaria that the only difference between the Opera grande and piccola was the number of movements, adding that “tutto è panno dell’istessa pezza” [“it is all cloth of the 4
same piece”]. The set G.195-200 represents indeed a bright example of what the expression “chamber music” actually meant in the late 18th Century. As redundant and obvious as it might sound, it is worth underlining here that, at least until the turn of the century, chamber music was not destined for great concert halls, nor for a large audience. String quartets (in particular the ones composed by Italian authors) were mainly conceived for small venues, where the players and few more selected people could enjoy a private musical entertainment, possibly while playing cards. For Boccherini the main audience was represented by Don Luis’s family, reunited in a room of a royal residence; most likely a little crowd, similar to the one eternalized by Francisco Goya in the painting The Family of the Infante Don Luis (1784). Boccherini deploys an abundance of subtle colour nuances, with a sound palette generally shifted towards the soft side by a peculiar vocabulary of agogic terms such as dolce and dolcissimo (sweet, very sweet), sottovoce (whispering), soave (mellow), mezza voce (under one’s breath). All the six quartets invariably begin with soft indications. The strong moments, enlightened by a forte or by the rarer fortissimo, are generally sudden and short; they seem aimed at awakening a distracted listener, but taking care not to disturb an ongoing conversation for too long. There is a frequent use of the terms rinf (rinforzato or rinforzando) and pf (poco forte), which are quite common in Boccherini’s works, but are not often found in works of contemporary composers. The two terms seems to be interchangeable, and indicate an increase in the musical intensity, not necessarily requiring a higher dynamic level. The indication rinf is described by Galeazzi as a crescendo from the piano to the forte, followed by a diminuendo (Elementi teorico-pratici di Musica, Ascoli: Francesco Cardi, 1817, 34). Galeazzi’s definition seems reductive for these Boccherini quartets, as in several occasions the rinf leads to a written out forte section, requiring just a crescendo, while in other occasions it refers to a single note, and therefore could be better expressed by a short and smooth accent. These moments can be also stressed by a change in the speed of the bow, by the use of vibrato as an ornament. Finally, they could just be naturally inlaid in the music, in form of a passing dissonance or as a written out 5
appoggiatura: in this last case, the dynamic indication merely acts as a signal for the performer to become aware of the expressive spot in his own part. The function of dynamics as warning signs can be observed in the alternative use of the terms piano and dolce: while they often appear simultaneously in the four staves, the latter is generally given to the part that is in charge of the melodic material, or which has a short prominent part. The use of syncopated rhythms is frequent, and causes unexpected movements of the accents within the bar’s hierarchy in order to evocate Spanish dances and folk atmospheres: this is particularly evident in the Trio of Quartet G.200. This Trio, the last movement of the whole set, contains a short fandango. Slurs often suggest a melodic portato, as can be observed in the beginning of the Allegro moderato in G.195: here, the anacrusis in the first violin part is smoothened by the presence of a slur between the upbeat and the following downbeat. The accompaniment is frequently characterized by wavy lines placed over repeated notes, as to require a frequent use of bow vibrato: this effect is an idiomatic tone colour of stringed instruments, hence not fully reproducible by the keyboard instruments with plucked or struck strings, used for the arrangements. For this recording, the reference pitch was A=436 Hz, following the proposal that the musician and theorist Giuseppe Sarti (1729-1802) made in St. Petersburg in 1796 (for further reference: Pietro Barbieri, “Giuseppe Sarti, fisico acustico e teorico musicale”, in Giuseppe Sarti musicista faentino. Modena: Mucchi Editore, 1986). © Simone Laghi
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Ensemble Symposium is a musical collective of professional performers with a strong interest in historical performance practice. Our aim is to create a link between musicological research and active performance through a series of projects that will make the scores available in modern notation for amateur and professional players, providing at the same time high quality première recordings. Founded in 2012 by Simone Laghi in Faenza (Italy), its activity began with the publication of G. P. Telemann’s Scherzi Melodichi, a collection of seven trio sonatas for violin, viola and continuo (Brilliant Classics 94330) and the relative score (Edizioni Pian e Forte, Milano). Their second recording (Brilliant Classics 95037) was the world première of the Six String Quartets by Bartolomeo Campagnoli (1751-1827), which received a mention as “Cd of the Month” in January 2015 by the website CdClassico.com. A critical edition of Campagnoli’s six string quartets, prepared by Simone Laghi, is under publication by A-R Editions (USA). www.ensemblesymposium.it info@ensemblesymposium.it Twitter: @enssymposium
Recording: 5-7 August 2015, Badia di San Michele Cavana, Lesignano de’ Bagni (PR), Italy Producer, recording and editing: Fabio Framba Cover: The Family of the Infante Don Luis, by Francisco Goya (1784), Fondazione Magnani Rocca, Traversetolo (Parma, Italy) www.magnanirocca.it p & © 2016 Brilliant Classics
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