PACM015: Piano Quintets in A major & D minor, Op.57, Nos. 1 & 4 - Boccherini

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Quintetto Chigiano Originally released in 1954, issued as Decca LP LXT2841 (Duration 33'26")

Play sample movement:

"The Chigi Quintet play both pieces to perfection" - Gramophone

A "flawless recording" in a superb transfer for Pristine by Peter Harrison

• BOCCHERINI Quintet No. 1 in A major for piano and strings [notes]
  Recorded 5 December 1952, West Hampstead Studios, London
  First issued in November 1953 as Decca LXT 2841
  
  
• BOCCHERINI Quintet No. 4 in D minor for piano and strings [notes]
  Recorded 22/24 October, 1951, West Hampstead Studios, London
  First issued in April 1952 as London LL501
  
  
  Quintetto Chigiano:

Sergio Lorenzi piano
Riccardo Brengola violin I
Mario Benvenuti violin II
Giovanni Leone viola
Lino Filippini cello

 

REVIEW of original LP issue

Boccherini, in all the works that the advocacy of the Italian Quartet and of the Chigi Quintet have allowed us to hear, maintains a high standard of invention. None of the compositions by this fluent, delicate, prolific composer formerly recorded is, however, quite as enchanting as the D minor Quartet on this new disc. Boccherini is revealed as even more consistently melodious, and more ornamental, than Haydn. The flow of ideas is unceasing; the shapeliness with which they are ordered delights us.

This music seems to stem from the opera-house. The first movement comprehends a march very close to that of the third-act finale to Figaro. In the third movement the likeness looks historically forwards : the 'cello sings a melody to which Verdi enthusiasts will readily fit Ulrica's words : "Uscite, e lasciate ch'io scruti nel ver! " All the same, whencesoever the inspiration may derive, the product is the purest chamber music ; and the ear. and mind are pleased as much by the perfect " placing " of the notes on the instruments as by the fresh ideas. The beautifully calculated first piano entry in the Largo cantabile is a striking example.

The A major Quintet, again, is a gem ; and the Chigi Quintet play both pieces to perfection. In decorative music they seem unsurpassable. The sparkle of Sergio Lorenzi's piano, the lithe, trim line of Brengola's violin, Lino Filippini's firm, warm 'cello tone—all of these are captured by the Decca engineers in a flawless recording.

A.P. The Gramophone, May 1954 (link)

Despite his prolific output - nearly 500 works, including 102 string quartets and 125 string quintets, the music of Luigi Boccherini (1743-1809) has always stood somewhat in the shadow of his great contemporaries of the classical era, sometimes rather unfairly regarded as falling somwhere between the styles of J.C. Bach and Schubert.

However, there is a distinct originality to be found in Boccherini's music. He was a well-travelled and cultivated man, a well-toured cellist who spent much of his life in Spain, before and after service as court chamber composer to Frederick Wilhelm II of Prussia. However it was mostly during the later part of his life, back in Spain as organist to the Kind, that the bulk of his chamber music was composed.

By this stage in his life he had established a friendship with Haydn, whose music he greatly admired, and this seems to have deepened his musical style. However, it is here, in these Piano Quintets, that we see possibly the true fruits of his work, with perhaps the first effective synthesis of piano and string quartet where each works more or less as an equal partner, and the cello is freed from its traditional basso continuo form of duplicating the keyboard's left hand.

Boccherini left two sets of six piano quintets, of which these come from the latter, written in 1799. Whilst they weren't to set the world on fire in the way Schumann achieved some 43 years later they are certainly well worth knowing, and in this recording by the Quintetto Chigiano, double-starred in The Record Guide of 1956, they receive a superb world premiere recording.

We are grateful to Mr. Don Petter for the use of his original LP for this transcription.

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