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Boccherini - Music of the Angels: Cello Concertos, Sonatas & Quintets

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Label: Hyperion

Cat No: CDA68444

Barcode: 0034571284446

Format: CD

Number of Discs: 1

Release Date: 1st November 2024

Works

Boccherini, Luigi

Cello Concerto no.2 in A major, G475
Cello Concerto no.6 in D major, G479
Cello Sonata in C minor, G2b
Cello Sonata in F major, G9
String Quintets (6), op.11 G271-276

» no.5 in E major, G275: Minuet

String Quintets (6), op.13 G277-282

» no.4 in D minor, G280

Artists

Steven Isserlis (cello)
Maggie Cole (harpsichord)
Luise Buchberger (cello)
Jonian Ilias Kadesha (violin)
Irene Duval (violin)
Eivind Ringstad (viola)
Tim Posner (cello)
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment

Conductor

Steven Isserlis

Works

Boccherini, Luigi

Cello Concerto no.2 in A major, G475
Cello Concerto no.6 in D major, G479
Cello Sonata in C minor, G2b
Cello Sonata in F major, G9
String Quintets (6), op.11 G271-276

» no.5 in E major, G275: Minuet

String Quintets (6), op.13 G277-282

» no.4 in D minor, G280

Artists

Conductor

Steven Isserlis

About

‘Boccherini's cello concertos, some twelve in number, were written comparatively early in his career, all dating from the years during which he toured as a virtuoso And by the way: what a virtuoso! Presuming that he could play his own music – which I think is a fair presumption – he must have been a truly wonderful player; one can feel it in the writing, as challenging as anything composed for the cello before the twentieth century, at least. (The great Russian cellist Gregor Piatigorsky, an avid Boccheriniphile, considered Boccherini to have been, on the evidence of his music, the greatest cellist of all time.)’ – Steven Isserlis

Sound/Video

Paused

1

Cello Concerto in D major, G479: 1. Allegro
2

Cello Concerto in D major, G479: 2. Adagio
3

Cello Concerto in D major, G479: 3. Allegro
4

Cello Sonata in C minor, G2b: 1. Allegro
5

Cello Sonata in C minor, G2b: 2. Largo
6

Cello Sonata in C minor, G2b: 3. Allegretto
7

String Quintet in D minor, G280: 1. Allegro
8

String Quintet in D minor, G280: 2. Andante sostenuto
9

String Quintet in D minor, G280: 3. Fuga. Allegro giusto
10

Cello Sonata in F major, G9: 1. Andantino
11

Cello Sonata in F major, G9: 2. Adagio assai
12

Cello Sonata in F major, G9: 3. Tempo di minuetto amoroso
13

Cello Concerto in A major 'The Frog', G475: 1. Allegro
14

Cello Concerto in A major 'The Frog', G475: 2. Adagio
15

Cello Concerto in A major 'The Frog', G475: 3. Rondo. Allegro
16

String Quintet in E major, G275: 3. Minuetto & Trio

Europadisc Review

It’s possible that the very refined elegance that is the hallmark of Boccherini’s music led to its reputational decline after the composer’s death in 1805. Certainly it lacks that dialectical streak found in the music of Haydn (Boccherini’s near contemporary), Beethoven, and even Mozart and Schubert, that came to be regarded as the epitome of the Classical style, as well as the springboard for musical Romanticism. Yet, as Steven Isserlis proves on his new disc devoted (in every sense) to Boccherini, the graceful refinement, cantabile writing, understated humour and angelic lyricism of these works are their own reward, especially when played with such loving attentiveness and tasteful musicianship.

Entitled ‘Music of the Angels’ (a quote taken from a French dictionary of music published just a few years after Boccherini’s demise), the album contains two cello concertos, two cello sonatas and a string quintet with two cellos – this last a genre that Boccherini made his own well before Schubert. The dates of the works are uncertain, and they may range from his early apprenticeship in his native Lucca to his later years in Spain, from where he served (at some distance!) as Chamber Composer to Friedrich Wilhelm II of Prussia. Isserlis contributes an entertaining booklet article which includes helpful biographical details, including the fact that Boccherini’s early career gained a boost from the support of one Giacomo Puccini – great-great-grandfather of the famous opera composer.

The disc opens with the Cello Concerto in D major, G479, published in Paris in 1770, in which Isserlis is joined by the strings of the Orchestra of the Age of the Enlightenment.. It is an unassumingly virtuosic work, with the soloist frequently required to play in very high registers, an effect which – combined with the fact that the solo passages are supported only by violins – gives the music a wonderfully ethereal feeling. The Allegro first movement opens buoyantly, with dotted figuration lending subtle momentum, but the solo passages have real tenderness thanks to Isserlis’s sweet-toned but never cloying playing. An ideal balance gives the soloist just the right degree of spotlight, especially in those passages where he is in harness with the first violins.

In the central Adagio, the opening dotted motif has a declamatory air, introducing a movement of operatic pathos. Like all the slow movements here, it is played with affectionate care, and proves to be the heart of the work, with delightful scalic flourishes rounding off the solo passages. The concluding Allegro is a sunny affair, and like the first movement is paced to allow the music space to breathe, while the tuttis have just a hint of the bucolic. Isserlis provides his own cadenzas in each movement, and they are models of good taste and thoughtfulness.

Two of Boccherini’s thirty-odd sonatas are included, works which were written for ‘cello e basso’, with the bass line playable either by another bowed instrument (a second cello or double bass) or a harmonising instrument (such as harpsichord or guitar). In the C minor Sonata, G2b, which opens with striking chords for the soloist, Isserlis opts for harpsichord (Maggie Cole), subtly enhancing the music’s dramatic mood. Once again there are high-lying passages which require the sort of deftness at which Isserlis is an expert. Nor does he eschew vibrato or occasional portamento, which helps to bring out the music’s fundamentally expressive nature. In the other sonata, in F major, G9, Isserlis teams up with fellow cellist Luise Buchberger, and here this is very much a case of ‘less is more’, the bare musical bones highlighting the work’s galant flavour. The emotional aspect is handled with characteristic good taste by Boccherini, with the closing movement, labelled Tempo di minuetto amoroso, combining affection with decorum.

In between the sonatas, and forming the disc’s centrepiece, is the String Quintet in D minor, G280. Isserlis is joined here by violinists Jonian Ilias Kadesha and Irène Duval, violist Eivind Ringstad and cellist Tim Posner. One of more than 100 such works from Boccherini’s pen, it combines minor-key passion with exquisite tastefulness, with birdlike trills and accompanimental figuration enlivening the opening Allegro. An Andante sostenuto of eloquent intimacy is followed, surprisingly, by a closing fugue which starts in severe mood but incorporates an unmistakably Italianate lyricism.

The main programme is rounded off by another concerto, in A major, G475. Isserlis has dubbed this ‘The Frog’ on account of passages in its closing Rondo which seem to evoke the sound of the amphibian: it gives rise to one of the best jokes in the amusing booklet notes. But the work is also remarkable for its central Adagio, not least for the way in which it is set in motion by a gently teasing harmonic inflection, one of many instances where Boccherini uses the subtlest of means to obtain results whose effects expand ripple-like. Here, as throughout the disc, Isserlis’s playing would melt a heart of stone: it’s impossible to imagine these undervalued works performed with more eloquent persuasiveness.

The disc closes with one of Boccherini’s few famous works; the Minuet from the E major String Quintet, G275, familiar to many from the Ealing comedy The Ladykillers. Whether or not it brings to your mind Alec Guinness’s Professor Marcus and his inept gang, this sparkling performance is a gem with which to close an absolute peach of an album. If you’ve yet to explore Boccherini’s extensive but largely neglected output, this is decidedly the disc with which to put that right: utterly unmissable!