The Leading Classical Music Label Direct To You

Read reviews, listen to the music, and purchase the COMPACT DISC Boccherini: Cello Concertos Nos. 4, 6-8

Customer Service Toll Free 866.489.4152

HomePage

Back to the Fort Wayne Philharmonic site

Narrow your search
with our Music Browser

Classical Music

        Ballet
        Chamber Music
        Choral
        Concertos
        Film Music
        Folk Legends
        Instrumental
        Musicals
        Opera / Operetta
        Orchestral
        Vocal

Recently Released

Upcoming Releases

Clearance

NaxosDirect Podcasts

Other Genres:

200 Essential Recordings

200 Essential

Audio Books

        Anthologies / Collections
        Arts
        Biographies
        Children's Classics
        Classic Fiction
        Great Epics and Tales
        History
        Junior Classic Fiction
        Junior History
        Literature
        Music Biographies
        Music Education
        Non-Fiction
        Philosophy
        Plays - Others
        Plays - Shakespeare
        Poetry
        Religion
        Samplers
        Sports
        Wine Guide

DVD

        Ballet DVD
        Classical Concert
        Classical Documentary
        Dance Documentary
        Opera DVD

Jazz

Jazz Contemporary
Jazz Icons

Naxos Label

        Naxos American Classics
        Naxos Best Of...
        Naxos Box Sets
        Naxos Cinema Classics
        Naxos Classics
        Naxos DVD
        Naxos DVD-Audio
        Naxos International
        Naxos Jazz
        Naxos Limited Edition
        Naxos Milken Archives
        Naxos Night Music
        Naxos Opera
        Naxos Orchestral
        Naxos Special Release
        Naxos Wind Band Classics
        Naxos World

New Age

Nostalgia

Penguin Guide

SACD

Video Librarian Reviews

Wind Band

World

        Ballad
        Bhuddist
        Chinese Music
        Classical (World)
        Early Music (World)
        Folk
        Gamelan
        Gypsy
        Hindustani
        Jazz (World)
        Klezmer
        Sufi
        Vocal (World)
        World

Labels
Composers
Conductors
Ensembles
Orchestras
Choirs
Artists
Instruments
Producers

Boccherini: Cello Concertos Nos. 4, 6-8

Home

Classical Music

Concertos

View large image

$9.99 (COMPACT DISC)

In Stock - Usually ships within 24 hours.

Link to this COMPACT DISC Link to this page

Luigi Boccherini was born in Tuscany in 1743, in the beautiful old walled town of Lucca and died in Madrid in 1805. His was a cultured family. His elder...

Read more about this recording

Luigi Boccherini was born in Tuscany in 1743, in the beautiful old walled town of Lucca and died in Madrid in 1805. His was a cultured family. His elder brother Giovanni Gastone, distinguished as a dancer and choreographer, was also a poet and wrote opera libretti for Salieri, among others, and the text of Joseph Haydn's oratorio II ritorno di Tobia. His sister, a dancer in Vienna, married Onorato Vigan� and was the mother of the famous dancer and choreographer Salvatore Vigan�. His father was a professional double bass player and Luigi Boccherini himself made his debut as a cellist at the age of thirteen. In 1757 he went to study in Rome but had only been there a few months when both he and his father were summoned to Vienna to play in the court orchestra. Although barely fifteen years old, his performance apparently made a deep impression on the Viennese musical establishment, which suggests that this reportedly very amiable and affable young virtuoso had plenty of opportunity to shine as a soloist in concertos and in chamber music.

From this time onwards Boccherini's life was a very busy one and involved much travelling. He returned to Lucca on various occasions, finally, in 1764, taking up a position in the musical establishment and retaining his connection there for the following three years.

In 1766 he embarked on an extended concert tour with the Lucca violinist Filipo Manfredi, reaching Paris in 1767. Here he had some of his works published and appeared with Manfredi at the Concerts spirituels, among other engagements. It was seemingly in 1768 that Boccherini and Manfredi travelled to Madrid, very probably with the promise of enthusiastic patronage from the Spanish court. Boccherini's principal patron was the Spanish Infante Don Luis for whom he wrote many new works. In the circumstances in which he found himself he was able to continue his particular interest in chamber music, as shown in his first Paris publications, embarking on his famous series of string quintets, with a concertante first cello part.

Boccherini followed the Infante Don Luis to Avila, after the latter's marriage earned official disapproval, but after the death of the Infante in 1785 he was granted a pension of half his salary by the King. In 1786 he was appointed chamber composer to the heir to the Prussian throne, an enthusiastic amateur cellist, who in the following year succeeded his uncle as Friedrich Wilhelm II of Prussia. There is no record, however, of any visit by Boccherini to the court in Berlin. He sought a renewal of his appointment in 1798, after the death of the king, but this was not granted.

According to later members of his family Boccherini was offered a teaching position at the new Conservatoire in Paris, where his music enjoyed considerable esteem, but graciously declined the offer. In Madrid, however, he had for some years enjoyed the support of private patrons and was employed by the French ambassador to Spain, Lucien Bonaparte, who reached Madrid late in 1800.

Throughout his life Boccherini pursued his concert career with enormous energy and at the same time wrote a quite unbelievable amount of music. In his last years, no longer playing but still composing, he appeared to be living in reduced circumstances, in some financial difficulties and no doubt suffering from the recent death of his second wife and also of two daughters. He died in 1805.

Boccherini made an incomplete thematic catalogue of his own works but this was destroyed in the turmoil of the Spanish civil war. Only in 1969 did Yves Gerard publish a new catalogue of the complete ceuvre, listing eleven concertos. The twelfth cello concerto was only discovered in 1987 in a library in Naples. The twelve known cello concertos are all probably quite youthful works, written before he settled in Madrid. These works exploit virtuoso technique, a prominent feature of which is the use of extremely fast passage-work in the very highest registers of the instrument, sometimes with additional double-stopping to provide the performer with even greater difficulties.

Concerto No.1 in C major starts with an orchestral tutti that presents some of the typical features of Boccherini's style. The music is open, fresh, uncluttered, yet sensual, optimistic and essentially appealing. In the second theme the clear harmonic palette is delicately shaded by momentary chromatic changes which yield to a repetition of the opening theme. In the slow quaver tread of the very touching Largo which follows, however, we are reminded that the High Baroque is not so far away. The final Allegro has many of the formal characteristics of the first movement, a kind of loose sonata-form. In the cellist's opening theme high and low notes alternate at some speed, as visually as it is audibly impressive.

Aldo Pais notes the similarity of the second theme of this movement to the very famous minuet from the fifth string quintet.

In Concerto No.2 in D major the solo cello sections are accompanied only by violins, which, with the high cello melodies, gives the music an airy lightness and grace. The opening Allegro is very florid, mixing all kinds of varied rhythms within the phrase, which is one of the defining characteristics of the rococo style. The Adagio contrasts solemn, very chromatic and almost hymn-like music with the decorative lines of the two solo sections. The surefooted joyful finale begins with a pedal note and features accented syncopations in the manner of Haydn. This is a rustic dance, tidied up and presented with a certain courtly elegance and decorum for the Viennese court.

The opening Allegro moderato of Concerto No.3 in G major is quite a complex structure with a number of varied thematic ideas in the orchestral and the solo expositions. The orchestral accompaniments to the solos are for violins and violas only. The joy of this concerto is its slow movement in G minor. With the simplest of means this Adagio creates a mood of real seriousness and of deeply felt emotion. The long held melody note at the beginning of the main theme is certainly reminiscent of slow movements in Each. The finale returns to the courtly elegance of a Quasi menuetto but with an extended form mixing sonata and rondo principles.

Rather unusually, finales in Boccherini often have the same richness of thematic content and complexity as his opening movements.

The Concerto No.4 in C major returns to the fuller sonority of the first concerto. In the opening movement an unusual feature occurs just before the cadenza in which the orchestra sustains harmonies while the cello weaves arpeggiated figures around them. The cadenza proper takes up these patterns to lead with a flourish into the final orchestral tutti. The dotted rhythms and slightly melancholic elegance of the Adagio are rather reminiscent of the sophistications of the French stile galant. The Allegretto begins with an energetic rising string figure, which suggests that Boccherini was already under the influence of the Mannheim orchestral style. This theme is heard eight times in the course of the sonata-form movement. The crystal clarity of the texture and the repetitions and economy of thematic material give the impression of a light-hearted rondo.

John Marlow Rhys

Tim Hugh

The British cellist Tim Hugh won two top medals at the 1990 Tchaikovsky Competition. He studied with Aldo Parisot at Yale and Jacqueline Du Pre in London before gaining his MA in Medicine at Cambridge. He has played with most British orchestras and toured in Japan, Poland, Norway, Spain, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Brazil and Italy. He is now principal cellist with the London Symphony Orchestra and with them has performed Boulez' Messagesquisse (standing in for Rostropovich), Richard Strauss's Don Quixote and Walton's Cello Concerto with Andre Previn, and Brahms's Double Concerto under Sir Colin Davis. For Naxos he has recorded Britten's Cello Symphony (8.553882), HoIst's Invocation (8.553696) as well as concertos by Bliss (8.553383), C.P.E. Bach (8.553298) and Hofmann (8.553853).

Scottish Chamber Orchestra

Formed in 1974, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra has won an international reputation for quality of performance in its innovative approach to the performance of a wide range of music has made it a respected pioneer. Joseph Swensen's first season as Principal Conductor, in 1996/97, attracted the acclaim of critics and audiences both in Scotland and south of the border. His recordings with the orchestra have added to a distinguished list of over a hundred recordings, many with the conductor laureate Sir Charles Mackerras. The Scottish Chamber Orchestra is committed to serving the whole of the Scottish community, while sustaining its international role as Scotland's foremost cultural ambassador. A busy touring schedule has taken the orchestra in recent years to over a hundred different cities, towns and villages in Scotland, while international tours have brought visits to the United States, the Far East and, on a regular basis, Europe. There has also been a close and fruitful relationship with the music of leading contemporary composers, including the ten Strathclyde Concertos by the orchestra's Composer Laureate, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, commissioned by Strathclyde Regional Council for the orchestra's principals, as well as a number of important works by the orchestra's Affiliate Composer, James MacMillan.

Anthony Halstead

Anthony Halstead's prominence in the period movement has taken him increasingly to those modem instrument orchestras wishing to develop an awareness and style of authentic baroque and classical practice, Born in Manchester, he attended Chethams School and the Royal Manchester College of Music, where he studied piano, horn, organ and composition. Subsequently he studied the harpsichord with George Malcolm and conducting with Sir Charles Mackerras and Michael Rose and now has a varied career as a conductor, director, harpsichordist and as a horn soloist of international repute. Anthony Halstead made his professional conducting debut in 1976 with the world premiere of the music-theatre work One and the Same by Elizabeth Lutyens. Following the development of his interest in authentic performance practice he has worked regularly with several period instrument orchestras, notably The Hanover Band, The Academy of Ancient Music and The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, conducting or directing outstanding concerts that have included a programme devoted entirely to Bach at the London Promenade Concerts, at the prestigious Berlin Bach Tage and on tour in The Netherlands. Among his many recordings are performances of the complete Drottningholm Music by J.H. Roman and, with the cellist Tim Hugh, the complete cello concertos of Boccherini for Naxos. His many invitations to conduct or direct outside Britain include appearances in the United States, Scandinavia, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.

Disc 1

Cello Concerto in C major, G. 477

(more info)

Performed by: Scottish Chamber Orchestra Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra
Composed by: Luigi Boccherini
Conducted by: Johannes Goritzki Anthony Halstead
Tim Hugh, cello

I. Allegro - 7:01
II. Largo - 6:30
III. Allegro - 4:37

Cello Concerto in D major, G. 479

(more info)

Performed by: Scottish Chamber Orchestra Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra
Composed by: Luigi Boccherini
Conducted by: Johannes Goritzki Anthony Halstead
Tim Hugh, cello
Christophe Coin,

I. Allegro - 6:43
II. Adagio - 6:47
III. Allegro - 5:15

Cello Concerto in G major, G. 480

(more info)

Performed by: Scottish Chamber Orchestra
Composed by: Luigi Boccherini
Conducted by: Anthony Halstead
Tim Hugh, cello

I. Allegro - 7:00
II. Adagio - 6:33
III. Allegro - 4:46

Cello Concerto in C major, G. 481

(more info)

Performed by: Scottish Chamber Orchestra
Composed by: Luigi Boccherini
Conducted by: Anthony Halstead
Tim Hugh, cello

I. Allegro moderato - 7:33
II. Adagio - 6:35
III. Allegretto - 4:29

Reviews

Be the first to review this title

Flash 9 required. Click to download.

Composer(s):
Boccherini, Luigi

Conductor(s):
Halstead, Anthony

Orchestra(s):
Scottish Chamber Orchestra

Artist(s):
Hugh, Tim

Label: Naxos Classics
UPC: 730099457125
Item Number: 8553571
Release Date: Apr 29, 1999

Boccherini: Cello Concertos Nos. 4, 6-8

Blue Note - A Story of Modern Jazz (Ntsc)

Bloch: Violin Concerto / Baal Shem / Suite Hebraique

Blame not my Lute: Elizabethan Lute Music and Poetry

Blake: The Great Poets

149

NOTICE: This site was unavailable for several hours on Saturday, June 25th 2011 due to some unexpected but essential maintenance work. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Your name:
Your email:
Friend's Name:
Friend's Email:
Write a personalized message:

Your name:
Rating:
Title:
Review: