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CotW - Boccherini
Quality control in Composer of the Week is an increasing worry.
There are still a good number of palpable hits, where much is revealed for listeners at a variety of levels, with something to interest old hands as well as tyros. That's the trick of it, as I'm sure most of us would agree. Last week's "Ravel and the Apaches" theme was a good example of how this can work.
Alas, this week shows the increasingly common flip side to CotW, in a wasted opportunity to illuminate the life and work of Boccherini - surely one of the least known of all the manifestly great composers.
We're getting a five-part Cook's Tour of his life from the "usual suspects" of standard sources, accompanied by short musical gobbets, too many of them bland and minor examples of his deep artistry. We're getting NO complete pieces - the only way to get a handle on why he's so good - and the superannuated playlist features far too many middle-of-the-road performances which might have been recommendable in 1980 but certainly aren't now.
You'd be forgiven for thinking that there was virtually nothing going on in Boccherini CD-land, when absolutely the reverse is the case. Aside from tiny snippets from Europa Galante, Emilio Moreno and Ensemble 415, where are Jordi Savall or the Mosaiques? As for those marvellous specialists in the Quintets, La Magnifica Comunita ... dream on!]
So the biography is dull, and the lazily-chosen musical selections do not reflect the fabulous explosion of Boccherini on record from Spanish and Italian groups which has occurred in the last fifteen years or so. What we're hearing gives little sense of his range, depth and quality. They seriously sell a great composer short.
Quality control, please, CotW! If your Editors don't know enough about state-of-the-art concerning a particular composer, where's the harm in speaking to somebody who does? -
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I thought it was worth merging these two threads, both of a similar slant."...the isle is full of noises,
Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices..."
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Well, with respect to Martin who is clearly a fan, I think I was having a pot-shot at Boccherini as much as CotW. I think I may have been frightened by a Boc string trio as a small child! I agree, however, that CotW ought to be getting my Boccherini juices flowing...and I'm afraid it hasn't so far. Supremely competent, a craftsman, but 'great'? Discuss.Comment
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I believe so - though you'd never know it, listening to the anodyne slush chosen by CotW this week! It's as if they actually *wanted* to show what a yawn he is. If you're interested in getting a handle on exactly why he's (a) absorbing, (b) full of musical vitality and (c) not like anybody else, there are a pile of good discs I'd recommend:Originally posted by ardcarp View Post
*** Selected Piano Quintets (from Op.56/57)
Patrick Cohen, Quatuor Mosaiques (Naive 2-CD)
*** Stabat Mater, preceded by String Qt. Op.24 No.6
Sophie Karthauser, Les Folies Francoises (Ricercar CD)
**** "Trio, Quartet, Quintet, Sextet for Strings"
Europa Galante (Virgin Classics)
[This is a fabulous "taster")
***** Fandango, two symphonies, Musica notturna di Madrid
Jordi Savall, Le Concert des Nations (AliaVox)
And if you want to hear his best symphony (La Casa del Diavolo, Op.12 No.4)
*** Boccherini, Jose de Nebra (arias sung by Maria Bayo)
El Ayre Espanol, Eduardo Lopez Banzo (Harmonia Mundi)Comment
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As a little postscript, listening as I type - they've even managed to find the blandest bit of the superlative "Stabat Mater", one of the most intense and dark of all his works (at least, of those known to me). This particular movement is intended, in context, as blessed relief from the pain. Out of context, it's just coming across as another anodyne bit of sunshine - though at least they chose a good performance for once!Comment
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I've enjoyed your posts and agree with much of what you say vis-a-vis this COTW, which has painted to a Boccherini greenhorn such as I that he was rather a twee, genteel classical composer and I had decided to investigate him no further. Whither the darkness one finds in Mozart?, I thought. I shall be looking up some of your recommendations on Qobuz. It is certainly a wasted opportunity as far as B. is concerned, esp. regarding the dearth of more modern, fresher performances (HIP) and to paint him in such an inaccurate light.Originally posted by Master Jacques View PostLast edited by Thropplenoggin; 10-07-13, 12:13.It loved to happen. -- Marcus AureliusComment
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yes, I will; go no further with Boccherini either!Don’t cry for me
I go where music was born
J S Bach 1685-1750Comment
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This one enters the logic-taunting territory of the Zen koan.Originally posted by Brassbandmaestro View Post
Ingenious use of a semi-colon.
It loved to happen. -- Marcus AureliusComment
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I bought this a couple of years ago...
...and never stopped playing it - really, the gorgeous playing "makes the music"... and you get some firstclass Mendelssohn thrown in too.
I got the 24-bit file but it should sound good as CD or whatever. Just heavenly. Once you start on these miniatures you always want "just one more" before bed...Comment
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Yes, do give LB a proper crack of the whip if you get the chance! I've come to love his Piano and String Quintets (as many of the latter as I've been able to find, and there are LOTS!) very much indeed, and find them as beautiful and inexhaustible as even Haydn's Quartets and Trios. He does it differently from Papa H, though: LB's music is all about contrasts of light and shade, formally simpler but emotionally just as complex and marvellously mercurial. And some great tunes... I doubt anyone could hear the Provencal 3rd movement from his Piano Quintet Op.57 No.3 (as done by Patrick Cohen et. al.) without starting to dance!Originally posted by Thropplenoggin View Post
Boccherini's "Spanish" works in particular often evoke that almost ghostly, courtly grace we see in Velasquez. He can be dark, certainly, but with a wistful flavour very unlike Mozart. He's his own man for sure, far from the pallid poetaster we're hearing on CotW!Comment
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It's a repeat isn't it (and quite a recent one)? No complaints from me about hearing Boccherini again though.Comment
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I have a vague memory of recommending his 6 quartets op. 32 on these pages - pure delight - especially Esterhazy Qt. recording.Comment
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