Boccherini Digital

Composers from the first half of the eighteenth century typically cast their violin music in the form of a sonata for violin and basso continuo: the violin performing the solo role, the continuo the accompaniment.

Why arrange Boccherini concertos? To bring out the colours, rhythms, dances, melodies and countermelodies. To reinvent our roles or to exchange them like a game, from one page to another.

Spring 2020: Corona embarks on its world tour of destruction. Musicians may be grounded, but dreams live on, and suddenly there’s time to finally realise one of them: record some of Boccherini’s music with my friends from The Northern Consort.

The most emblematic work among Boccherini’s descriptive music is his quintet with two cellos La musica notturna delle strade di Madrid, which ‘depicts’ a cross-section of the night in Madrid, from the sound of the Ave Maria on the city’s church bells to the soldiers’ patrol announcing the curfew. In the short time-frame of five movements / episodes, the different souls of the night of Madrid are recalled.

Since its formation in 2015, Orpheus Baroque has grown into an important part of the capital city’s music offering, serving as a meeting place for orchestra members and some of Sweden’s foremost freelance Baroque musicians. During the vignette Orpheus Treasure Trove, we hear the ensemble in a smaller format for chamber music.

“The finest string quartet, unquestionably, that our century has known.” In 1951, when the Quartetto Italiano first visited the USA, composer Virgil Thomson’s was enthused: “Perfection is the only word to describe this playing.” The quartet’s members, who had met while studying in Siena, made their ensemble debut in 1945. They went on to enthral audiences around the world with interpretations of proverbial beauty, insight and architectural elegance.

This recording brings together four Hungarian composers who, each in their own way, contributed to the development of a new national musical style at the beginning of the twentieth century. They managed to write music that was respected internationally and that both nurtured them and raised the general standard of music in Hungary. Although Leo Weiner's (the 'Hungarian Mendelssohn'), and Erno Dohnanyi's string trios were composed during their student years, both works have become significant milestones in the restricted repertoire for this instrumental combination.

Raphael Feye and the Karski Quartet have collaborated on an exhilarating new album, paying a tribute to Luigi Boccherini's string quintets. These selected quintets showcase the composersexceptional ability to craft melodies that are both elegant and emotionally resonant while maintaining a graceful interplay between the instruments. To enhance the recording's excitement, the musicians decided to vary the distribution of the parts, ensuring each piece possesses a unique and distinct character.

Steven Isserlis’s new album, Music of the Angels, is available now on Hyperion.

Ludwig van Beethoven left only a few works for the string trio, and, unlike his quartets, they are played far too seldomly. The Trio Boccherini now presents a complete recording of these trios on the GENUIN label to draw attention to this. The program includes Beethoven's first two works in this genre, the Trio op. 3 and the Serenade op. 8.