Jordi Savall, Le Concert des Nations - Luigi Boccherini: Fandango, Sinfonie & Musica Notturna di Madrid (2005) [SACD]

It has taken a long time for Jordi Savall to get around to the music of Luigi Boccherini, an Italian composer who, nevertheless, looms very large in the old Spanish music of which Savall is such an eloquent advocate. If the AliaVox release Luigi Boccherini: Fandango, Sinfonie & La Music Notturna di Madrid is any indication of Savall's potential in interpreting the music of Boccherini, then it was well worth the wait. Best known outside of Europe for his ubiquitous Minuet in A, Boccherini is often misunderstood as a fancy-pants composer of sugary confections for the court à la Dittersdorf, but anyone who knows his String Quartets, Op. 32, or any of the works belonging to this carefully chosen program already knows that Boccherini's music has some teeth.

The soloists, drawn from within Savall's group Le Concert des Nations, are superb in this music; Bruno Cocset has the all-important cello parts, which Boccherini himself would have played, and lutenist Rolf Lislevand delivers the guitar solo in the Fandango with a dashing, yet sensitive touch. Boccherini's much-loved, but seldom-recorded La Musica Notturna della Strade di Madrid gets its best ever recording here, stylish in presentation yet not downplaying some of the grit in Boccherini's score. An additional surprise here is a stormy D minor symphony from 1787 worthy of the best proto-Romantic Stürm und Drang efforts one might expect from C.P.E. Bach and Haydn's middle-period symphonies; the A major symphony is a lighter and more typical piece, but is substantial nonetheless.

Boccherini's dance and character pieces sound oddly modern, not in a "Stravinsky-like" sense, but in an "upbeat and contemporary" one. Some of the music, if played with too lush an ensemble, can take on an unintended travelogue-like feel, and one is not sure that Savall fully avoids this in the slow sections of the Fandango. On the other hand, these same portions are also among the most radio-friendly on this disc, and do draw the listener into the music. For those who continue to wonder what the Classical period has to offer outside of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, AliaVox's Luigi Boccherini: Fandango, Sinfonie & La Music Notturna di Madrid offers a resounding, and at times, giddily intoxicating answer.

Tracks:

Quintetto n°4 in re maggiore "Fandango" per corde e guitarra (1798)
01. - Pastorale
02. - Allegro maestoso
03. - Grave assai - Fandango

Sinfonia in re minore, "Grande" a più strumenti obbligati Op.37 (1782)
04. - Allegro moderato
05. - Minuetto con moto
06. - Andante amoroso
07. - Finale: Allegro vivo, ma non tanto presto

Sinfonia in la maggiore Op.35, n°3 (1782)
08. - Allegro giusto
09. - Andante
10. - Allegro ma non presto

La musica notturna di Madrid 1780
11. - Le campane di l'Ave Maria
12. - Il tamburo dei Soldati
13. - Minuetto dei Ciechi: "con mala grazia"
14. - Il Rosario: Largo assai - Allegro - Largo come prima
15. - Passa calle: Allegro vivo
16. - Il tamburo
17. - Ritirata: Maestoso

Personnel:

Direction: Jordi Savall
Bruno Cocset, violoncello
Manfredo Kraemer, violon concertino
Pablo Valetti, violon II
Rolf Lislevand, guitare
José de Udaeta, castagnettes