Search - Luigi Boccherini :: Boccherini: Complete Guitar Quintets

Simple Elegance

Moldyoldie | Motown, USA | 10/04/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Say what you will about Boccherini, but his confections make the most exquisite background music. Brilliant has released a whole series of very reasonably priced original recordings of Boccherini's music. While the performances here don't ooze the last drop of style a la Europa Galante (Boccherini: String Quintets; Minuet in A /Europa Galante * Biondi), they are nonetheless beautifully played and recorded using period instruments and exude a simple, easygoing elegance."

Complete? Well, not quite

Eugene C. Braig IV | Columbus, OH United States | 10/03/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Nicely played and quality sound. Roselli is a competent guitarist with real panache for classical-era chamber music on period guitars. ...And Brilliant Classics has real panache for assembling quality performances of various "complete" musical sets in multi-CD sets. However, the quintet in E minor, G 451 (my personal favorite of the Boccherini guitar quintets) is very clearly omitted from this technically near-but-not-quite-complete set. Once more to be perfectly clear, Boccherini's E minor guitar quintet, the one often named no.7, is NOT included in this set in spite of its "complete" label.



For a complete modern recording, consider Pepe Romero and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields Chamber Ensemble on Philips Duo (Boccherini: Quintets For Guitar And Strings). For an actually complete (with the addition of an additional fine quintet by Mauro Giuliani) near-period-instrument recording (Savino uses a fine 6-string 19th-c. guitar where Boccherini almost certainly worked with a guitar in courses of paired strings--similar to the modern 12-string--in mind), consider the 3-CD series by Richard savino and the Artaria Quartet on Harmonia Mundi (Luigi Boccherini: Quintets I, II & III for String Quartet & Guitar - The Artaria Quartet / Richard Savino, Luigi Boccherini: Quintets IV, V & VI for String Quartet & Guitar - The Artaria Quartet / Richard Savino, and Luigi Boccherini: Quintets VII & VIII for String Quartet & Guitar / Mauro Giuliani: Gran Quintetto, Op. 65 - The Artaria Quartet / Richard Savino, also re-released on their budget line)."