Luigi Boccherini is one of those composers that as a cellist I cannot ignore. I might not always like baroque music, but he brings a lightness cheerfulness to his music that is unrivaled. And he wrote a lot of chamber music with a big role for the cello. And yet, he’s not actually from the baroque age, just a bit old fashioned for his time.
Luigi was born in 1743 Lucca in a musical family. Having the right contracts and a considerable talent, he was able to attract the attention of the high and mighty and to find work in Spain, employed by the infante, in this case the brother of the king. This Spanish culture has invaded a lot of his music, to the point that he wrote a lot for guitar. Classical guitarists should know him for that.
Though he was important for the guitar, he was even more so for the cello. Apart from a large number of sonatas, he also gave the instrument a more balanced role in the string quartet as it was developed by Haydn. Haydn gave the cello a strict support role, it was a simple bass. Boccherini was such an accomplished cello player he was able to play pieces for violin on it – at pitch! Maybe because of that he gave the instrument a wider role in the quartet.
These two records hold just four of the more than a hundred string quintets Boccherini wrote. These quintets consist of two violins, a viola and two cellos. Here again, a bigger role for my favourite instrument.