Vivaldi, Boccherini: Cello Concertos

Maisky has the distinction of being the only cellist in the world to have studied with both Mstislav Rostropovich and Gregor Piatigorsky. Rostropovich has lauded Mischa Maisky as "... one of the most outstanding talents of the younger generation of cellists. His playing combines poetry and exquisite delicacy with great temperament and brilliant technique."

Boccherini: Los últimos trios

This sumptuous Spanish release presents four trios from late in Luigi Boccherini's career. The three players La real cámara actually come from three different countries: they are Spanish, Italian, and German—appropriate for Boccherini, an Italian who worked in Spain for much of his life in the late eighteenth century and had to contend with a musical world in which the center of innovation was shifting to far-off German-speaking lands. The very detailed and informative liner notes by violinist Emilio Moreno truculently disparage anyone who classifies Boccherini as a minor composer. It's better to let the music speak for itself, which it does reasonably well.

The chief interest of these trios, as Moreno points out, is that they were written for the antiquated combination of two violins and a cello—but nevertheless manage to build large, late-Classical structures that introduce lots of variety and still hold together. The key is Boccherini's skilled writing for his own instrument, the cello. If you've heard one or two of the more famous Boccherini chamber works (like the quintet subtitled "La ritirata de Madrid"), you'll certainly enjoy the way Boccherini can make his cello sing sweetly or churn away in quasi-symphonic sounds in these works.

His melodic inspiration flags at times, but on the whole this is an attractive disc of Classical-era chamber music that rediscovers some buried works. Glossa's sound engineers, working in the Iglesia de San Miguel in the Spanish city of Cuenca, create an ideal environment for a small string group. --James Manheim, All Music Guide

Fandango: Music by Boccherini, Haydn, Pujol & Houghton

Classical guitar virtuoso teams up with Melbourne’s hottest string quartet in a display of passion and style for which they are both renowned. Schaupp and the Flinders do the composers proud, the well-judged tonal and timbral balance as much as the cleanly expressive interpretations ensuring that, frozen/suspended as they are, these performances will withstand repeated listenings. --Limelight Magazine

Boccherini: Flute Quintets Op. 19

'These are delightful works played with a persuasively affectionate period-instrument style, with a felicitous lead from the nimble and gently expressive flautist, Carlo Ipata. Hyperion do the players proud in their debut recording; we shall surely hear more of them' --Gramophone

'I was pleasantly surprised with this disc. The music is typical Boccherini, charming and with a certain amount of energy…but the performances by Auser Musici flow beautifully. They have both inner energy and a smile' --Fanfare, USA

'Listening to these six quintets, one is immediately captivated by a charm and invention that, while of a different nature, easily equals that of Haydn or Mozart … The playing is exceptional … Beautifully recorded in the Oratorio di S Domenico, Pisa, this is an auspicious debut for Auser Musici on Hyperion. Further recordings are planned - let's hope we don't have to wait too long for them' --International Record Review

The Baroque Album

There is no doubting that both technically and musically he is an outstandingly gifted player, able to command not only tonal beauty across the range of his instrument (his upper register has a violinistic purity), but also to prove himself more than a match for all of Boccherini's virtuoso tricks. --Fanfare

The Boccherini concerto is, of course, the work that achieved such notorious popularity in the vulgar hybrid version by Grützmacher. Needless to say (at least I hope it’s needless in this day and age), Wang plays the original score. There is no doubting that both technically and musically he is an outstandingly gifted player, able to command not only tonal beauty across the range of his instrument (his upper register has a violinistic purity), but also to prove himself more than a match for all of Boccherini’s virtuoso tricks. The first theme of the opening Allegro moderato is played with an easy elegance, while he draws beautifully sustained lines in the central movement, even if it is taken too slowly and with too much vibrato employed for my taste. The high-spirited Rondo finale is also very winning, Wang’s strongly accentuated upbeat on the main theme providing an excellent impetus maintained throughout the movement...

...Monn, an important figure in the development of the early Viennese symphony, was noted for his sound contrapuntal skills, here on particular display in the final Allegro non tanto. But the jewel of the work is the beautiful central Adagio, a 12/8 siciliana in E♭•played by Wang with great affection and searching expressivity. Throughout, the writing for the cello is fluently accomplished, the concentration on the instrument’s lower register enhancing the serious, at times uneasy mood of the outer movements... -- Brian Robins, FANFARE

MP3 320 · 123 MB

Boccherini: Guitar Quintets Nos. 4, 7 and 9 "La ritirata di Madrid"

These very good recordings were always worth their place in the catalogue to which they are now restored. Bream's 1969 version of No. 7 is still the best available (RCA GL42753, 3/79) and Pepe Romero's integral set of the Quintets (Philips 6768 268, 12/81) has since come on the scene. What this disc offers is the two most colourful items of all, the last movements of No. 9 (La ritirata di Madrid) and No. 4 (Fandango, complete with castanets) on the same record; in a corpus of music with so much below 'masterpiece' level this is not unimportant.

It offers also much first-class playing from all concerned, tonal warmth and faithful recording—though the guitar might have been given a bit more prominence, audibility being preferable to fidelity in music of this unpretentious kind. -- J.D., Gramophone [7/1982] 

MP3 320 · 131 MB

Haydn, Mozart, Boccherini, Tartini: Works for Cello & Strings

Founded by cellist and conductor Yuli Turovsky, I Musici de Montréal is a chamber orchestra of 15 musicians that performs a vast repertoire extending from the Baroque to the Contemporary, and is among the most important touring orchestras in Canada.

“The Incredible String Band” --The Independent, London

“I Musici de Montréal is a decidedly virtuoso group” --South China Morning Post, Hong-Kong

“Whiplash precision and tension” --Stereo Review, New York

MP3 320 · 123 MB