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
