Edition Luigi Boccherini: Symphonies

Erxleben, Michael, Neues Berliner Kammerorchester

PE 460

The CDs were originally released separately in 1993 by Capriccio, who then re-issued them as a double-disc set in 2002. Three years later they appeared again in the label's 10-disc boxed set commemorating the 200th anniversary of Boccherini's death - see review. • The Symphonies are listed in the booklet as nos. 13-20, which is unhelpful - the notes themselves explain that Boccherini had previously written three sets of six prior to these: his op.12 of 1771, G.503-8 (including his best-known, so-called 'Casa del Diavolo', published around 1776 as his op.16!), op.21 of 1775, G.493-8 and op.35 of 1782, G.509-14. The G numbers, from Yves Gérard's 1969 catalogue, are the best guide, and thankfully also given. G.516 is believed destroyed in the Second World War. • The works are lightly scored for a pair of oboes, bassoons, horns and strings, with the addition of a flute in G.517 and G.518. The three on the first CD are as much concertante works as symphonic, although Boccherini nevertheless labelled them Symphonies and laid them out in the standard allegro-minuet-andante-allegro arrangement. On the second disc, the slightly later works are more noticeably symphonic in the style of Haydn, Mozart or J C Bach, apart from the overture-style G.521, which is a mere six minutes long, yet still divided into three sections, given a separate opus number and listed by Boccherini as a 'sinfonia' like the the other three.

CD

24.10.2011

811691014609