The Guitar Quintets Including

Abstract

"There is perhaps no instrumental music more ingenious, elegant, and pleasing, than his quintests: in which invention, grace, modulation, and good taste, conspire to render them, when well executed, a treat for the most refined hearers and critical judges of musical composition." Publishing these words in 1776, Charles Burncy was among (he earliest critics to glow with enthusiasm over the music of I uigi Boceherini. I le would not be the last. Although Franz Joseph Haydn was a greater innovator, and Wolfgang Mozart's style was more scintillating. Boceherini was the quintessential Classical composer of instrumental music. During his lifetime, he published extensively, and following his death there was a great demand for unpublished or "undiscovered" music by him. Boceherini was born in Lucca, the son of a cello or contrabass player. Under his father's tutelage, he be¬came I virtuoso cellist, giving his debut at the age of 13. Shortly after that, father and son became mu¬sicians in the Imperial Court Theatre of Vienna, where Boceherini remained, off and on, until 1764. Back in Lucca then, he composed church music and at times visited Milan, where he took part in the first public performances by a string quartet (two violins, viola and cello). Joining Filippo Manfredi, a violin¬ist with the quartet, Boceherini embarked on a tour of France and Spain in 1766. They stayed in Paris un¬til J768, during which time Boccherini's reputation grew and he ohtained the first publications of his music. Moving on to Madrid, Boceherini came under the patronage of the Infante Don Luis, younger brother of the king. Here, in the 1770s, Bnc-cherini began composing his famous string quintets (for string quartet plus a second cello). This peaceful life continued until 1785, when Don Luis died. Although the king of Spain granted Boc¬eherini a pension, the composer now sought a new patron in the person of Friedrich Wilhclm, soon to become king of Prussia. Friedrich Wilhclm was an amateur cellist who knew Boccherini's quinlels well. (Also, in four years, Mozart would compose his three "Prussian" Quartets, featuring the cello, for the monarch.) Boceherini had no trouble obtaining a continuing commission to supply chamber music to the court of Prussia. At the same time, he was com¬poser to the Benavente-Osuna family in Madrid. Un¬fortunately, both sources of patronage dried up in 1798, but Lucien Bonaparte, who arrived in Madrid in 1800, became the composer's new patron for a time.