Luigi Boccherini (1743-1805): 4 String Trios

00:00 Trio Op. 38 No.2 in D major (Op.47 No.5): Andantino moderato assai - Tempo di minuetto
07:47 Trio Op. 14 No.5 in E flat major: Andantino - Allegro con spirito - Allegretto sostenuto (Variazioni)
20:31 Trio Op. 14 No.4 in D major: Allegro giusto - Andantino - Allegro assai
30:44 Trio Op. 38 No.3 in F Major (Op.47 No.6): Andante moderato assai - Allegro non tanto

The New York String Trio: Gerald Tarack, violin / Harry Zaratzian, viola / Alexander Kouguell, cello

Arte: detalle de Escena de jardín (c1780), por Antonio Carnicero (1748-1814)

Luigi Boccherini, one of Italy’s greatest composers of instrumental music, was born in the north Italian town of Lucca. His remarkable talent for music developed early, and he soon mastered the cello, eventually becoming one of the greatest composers for that instrument. In 1760, when only seventeen years of age, he started a thematic catalogue of his compositions, his first entry being six string trios, Op. 1; these were followed the next year by a set of string quartets, Op. 2, written about the same time as Haydn’s first quartets. In the early years of his life, 1757-65, Boccherini travelled to such important centers as Rome, Vienna, and Milan. In 1766, he set out on a concert tour with the violinist Filippo Manfredi that lasted 1767-68. Persuaded to visit Madrid by the Spanish ambassador to France, Boccherini arrived there c. 1768 and made his home in Spain thereafter. Since the position of court composer was already filled by Gaetano Brunetti, an important symphonist of the later 18th century, Boccherini had to seek employment elsewhere. In 1770, he was finally appointed cellist and composer to the Infante Don Luis, brother of Carlos III.

With the genial Don Luis, a good salary, and a resident string quartet to which he could add his cello in the performance of his quintets, Boccherini enjoyed a period of fifteen tranquil and productive years which were, in many respects, the happiest of his life. Even with the death of the Infante, in 1785, and many personal misfortunes, Boccherini continued to compose and find patrons of high rank, such as Frederick William II of Prussia (1786-97) and Lucien Bonaparte (1801-02). Boccherini’s large output includes over 350 instrumental compositions, of which his some 113 quintets for 2 violins, viola, and 2 cellos are his most celebrated works. Boccherini’s high reputation during his lifetime is reflected in the remarks of the great eighteenth-century music historian Charles Burney, who wrote in his General History of Music with his usual perspicacity: “Boccherini... has perhaps supplied the performers on bowed-instruments and.lovers of Music with more excellent compositions than any master of the present age, except Haydn. His style is at once bold, masterly, and elegant. There are movements in his works, of every style, and in the true genius of the instruments for which he writes, that place him high in rank among the greatest masters who have ever written for the violin or violoncello.’ The expressive goals of the mature composer were set forth in a letter written in 1799, in which Boccherini declared that ‘Music is made to speak to the heart of man, and this is the effect that I aim at producing, if it lies within my power. Music deprived of sentiment and of passions is meaningless.” Boccherini’s style of composition and performance were sufficiently individual to cause him no little anxiety. Three times in his fascinating correspondence with the Parisian music publisher Ignaz Pleyel, 1796-99, he warned that his music must be well performed and heard several times before it could be appreciated, advice that holds as true for the present day as it did then.

Of the c. 50 string trios by Boccherini, only 12 are written for the combination of violin, viola, and cello; the rest still call for the older Baroque ensemble of two violins and cello. Boccherini described his six trios Op. 14, written in 1772, as works in the concertante style, meaning that they contain more soloistic writing and brilliant passage work than usual. The six trios labelled Op. 38 by the publishers, but listed as Op. 47 in Boccherini’s catalogue (where Nos. 2 and 3 are given as 5 and 6), were composed in 1793. Denoted as terzettini or “little trios,” they are smaller-scaled and each has two movements rather than three as in the Op. 14. The works selected for this recording are among the best of the two sets. The trios Op. 38 are especially influenced by the galant style, which favors motivic contrasts and a wide variety of rhythmic and ornamental patterns. All these works fully represent the composer’s personal idiom. Here we find Boccherini the superb melodist, the master of harmonic color, of rhythmic effect, of sonority and imaginative instrumental combinations, a composer of sovereign skill and intimate expression. The more we hear this music, the more it grows in beauty and meaning, and the more it asserts a special, mysterious power.

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