Classical Editor: Rob Barnett                               Founder Len Mullenger: Len@musicweb-international.com


BOCCHERINI
String Quintets Op.25 Nos. 6, 4, and 1/ Minuet from Op.11 No.5
Europa Galante
Recorded 1999
EMI Virgin Veritas VC 5 45421 2 1 [59.57]
Crotchet
  AmazonUK   AmazonUS

A highly enjoyable hour of Boccherini on period instruments with excellent performances from Europa Galante. About six minutes into the first track their incredible unanimity in playing off the string, or spiccato, is literally striking in its percussive effect. Their playing becomes unashamedly theatrical in the finale to the same work and the virtuosity of the group's leader, the well-known violinist Fabio Biondi, deserves especial praise. The three quintets come from the Op.25 set written in 1778 when Boccherini was in his tenth year living in Spain, as part of the Court of the Infante Don Luis, brother of the Emperor Charles III and friend of Goya. Like Haydn, then currently at the Court of Esterhazy, Boccherini had rather gentle duties as a composer, and could develop further his predilection for the quintet with two cellos, much because of the presence of the string-playing Font family who were among his employer's retinue. The music of all three works featured on this disc varies between feverish virtuosity, bouncing rhythms, extraordinary effects, lyrical melody, and an uncanny ability to make five players sound like a full string orchestra (especially given the excellence of these performers who evidently throw themselves into this wonderful music). It's not all fireworks, listen for example to the intensity of the pianissimo dynamics in the Larghetto to Op.25 No.4.

Recently removed from the Grade 4 syllabus of the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music's violin examinations, that famous Minuet (which has appeared in so many forms since the 1860s, nearly a century after its composition in 1771) by which the name of Boccherini, it must be admitted, is entirely known, makes an appropriate filler in a fresh interpretation with a much faster Trio than Minuet and with both movements ornamented at their repeats, but all charmingly phrased. That said, this disc should do much to widen the appeal of this extraordinary music.

Christopher Fifield

Return to Index

Reviews from previous months
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board.  Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.This is the only part of MusicWeb for which you will have to register.


You can purchase CDs, tickets and musician's accessories and Save around 22% with these retailers: