If you’re anything like me then you’ll have heard of Boccherini
and you’ll have heard a little of his music, but he’ll mostly
be a blank for you. He was well renowned in his day, serving
at the royal courts of Vienna and Madrid, but his reputation
has suffered since, not least because he was composing at the
same time as his (indisputably greater) contemporaries Haydn
and Mozart. I came to this disc with an open mind, hoping to
be wowed and won over by some music that had been unjustly neglected.
In the end, though, I found it diverting but rather bland in
places and not an especially satisfying experience on the whole.
When I saw the title of this disc I was immediately intrigued
by the idea of a string quartet playing with guitar, but my
first problem is that Boccherini doesn’t do anything particularly
interesting with the combination. More often than not it’s a
string quartet playing, with a barely audible guitar somewhere
in the background. On the occasions when the guitar does come
to the fore, such as in the fourth quintet, the results are
very pleasing. The quintets were all written as a homage to
Spain, the composer’s adoptive home, and this quintet has a
more Spanish tinge than most of the others; it’s even nicknamed
the “Fandango” after the lively dance in the finale. It has
an airy first movement, relaxed and atmospheric, evocative to
me of a hot Spanish afternoon. The finale is a toe-tapping dance
which is engaging and energetic. The guitar really takes off
here, which is the key to the work’s success. The inspiration
drops in the slow movement, however, which is too often self-conscious,
insistent and repetitious, to my ears at least. I’m afraid it
was this rather pedestrian quality that I noticed again and
again as I listened to this set. The D minor quintet (No. 1)
is refined but a little strait-jacketed, showcasing the sort
of thing that hasn’t won Boccherini many modern fans. The minor
key of the music is austere in its own way, but it completely
lacks the genuine drama that, say, Haydn or Mozart would have
invested in a D minor work. The slow movement sounds bland and
a little disengaged, followed by a genial - dare I say, harmless?-
Minuet and a finale which is busy without grabbing the attention
too much. The E major quintet (No. 2) is also rather self-conscious,
as if looking at itself in the mirror and insisting to the listener
how fine it is. I, on the other hand, found it a little wearying
and it didn’t hold my attention, though the sheer pomposity
of the third movement is diverting for a few minutes.
Not everything is like this, however: I liked the smiling warmth
of the D major quintet (No. 5) with its genteel first movement
which then returns as the subject of variations in the finale.
I quite enjoyed the B flat bustle of No. 3. Too much of the
music is really quite forgettable, though, and I think that,
if I return to this set, it will probably be as background music
for a dinner party rather than something to concentrate on in
a sitting.
None of this is to cast any aspersions on the playing, which
is warm, loving and accurate. It’s a little bland at times though,
to be fair to the Dimovs, they aren’t given much to go on. This
is a set that is probably for die-hard classicists only.
Simon Thompson
Jean-Pierre Dumez (guitar)