Release Date: 12 January 1999
Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 636943432426
Genres: Classical
Composer/Series: BOCCHERINI
Description
Luigi Boccherini(1743-1805)Cello Sonatas, Volume1The Italian cellist and composer Luigi Boccherini was born in Lucca in1743, the son of a double-bass player. His family was distinguished not only inmusic but also boasted poets and dancers among its members. His elder brotherGiovanni Gastone, born in 1742, was both dancer and poet, the author of thetext of Haydn's Il ritorno di Tobia and of the libretti of some earlierstage works of the Vienna court composer, Antonio Salieri. He later becameofficial poet of the Coliseo de los Canos del Peral in Madrid, a theatre to theconcerts in which Boccherini had contributed music. His sister Maria Ester wasa dancer and married Onorato Vigan??, a distinguished dancer and choreographer.Her son, Salvatore Vigan??, who studied composition with Boccherini, occupies aposition of considerable importance in the history of ballet.By the age of thirteen Boccherini was appearing in concerts as acellist. In 1757 he went with his father to Vienna, where they were both invitedto join the orchestra of the court theatre. Boccherini returned two years laterto Lucca, but there were further visits to Vienna before he found a position in1764 at home. In 1766, however, he set out with his fellow-townsman, theviolinist Manfredi, a pupil of Nardini, for Paris, having performed with bothviolinists and with Cambini in chamber music in Milan the previous year.In France Boccherini and Manfredi won considerable success andBoccherini himself also continued his work as a composer, in addition to hisperformances as a virtuoso. In 1768 the pair left for Spain, where Boccheriniseems to have lived until his death in 1805. In Madrid he was appointedcomposer and virtuoso di camera to the Infante Don Luis, younger brotherof King Carlos III. Part of the following period he spent in Madrid and part atthe Palace of Las Arenas in the province of Avila, where the Infante retiredafter an unacceptable marriage. Members of the Font family were employed by thePrince as a string quartet, for which Boccherini wrote quartets and with whomhe performed his own string quintets. He renewed his association with FranciscoFont in later years. After the death of Don Luis in 1785, Boccherini enteredthe service of the Benavente-Osuna family in Madrid, directing the orchestra ofthe Countess-Duchess and providing music for her salon. Here he was one of adistinguished international company that included his friend, the painter Goya.At the same time he was appointed court composer to Friedrich Wilhelm, nephewof Frederick the Great, who succeeded his uncle as King of Prussia in 1787. Inthis latter position he provided the cello-paying king with new compositionsunder the same kind of exclusive arrangement as that which he had earlierenjoyed with Don Luis. There is, however, no evidence that Boccherini everspent any time in Prussia. After the death of Friedrich Wilhelm II and thedeparture of other patrons from Madrid, Boccherini received support from LucienBonaparte, the Fr
Tracklisting
Dariia Lytvishko
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra; Marin Alsop
Alice Di Piazza; Basel Sinfonietta; NDR Bigband; Titus Engel
Anna Alas i Jove; Miquel Villalba
David Childs; Black Dyke Band; Nicholas Childs
Various
Various
Lully
