Saturday, April 2, 2011; 8:00 pm
Wortham Center, Cullen Theater

Ridolfo Luigi Boccherini flourished in an Italian family of multi-talented artists.  His eldest brother danced professionally, while moonlighting as a librettist for such luminaries as Franz Joseph Haydn.  Two sisters reigned as prima ballerinas in Venice and Vienna, while the youngest sibling was an opera singer in Florence.  Beginning his own solo career at a young age, Luigi toured as a cellist, often performing his own compositions.  At one point, after concerts in Paris, he took a detour to Madrid where he worked in an opera orchestra, like many of Mercury Baroque’s players.

Boccherini’s extended sojourn in Spain and his sensitivity to dance and lyricism, no doubt fostered by living in a family of dancers and singers, stimulated the exciting music heard on this program. In response to his patrons, Boccherini often included traditionally nationalist elements like the double-click rhythms of castanets into his works, but because of his international travels he also showed his interest in and awareness of advanced compositional trends.
Among these trends was the growing use of unifying elements in large-scale works.  The best-known example is Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony where the main theme appears in every movement. Several of Boccherini’s nearly thirty orchestral works display features made famous by Beethoven.  Tonight’s three-movement symphony is one such case.  The dramatic first and last movements share the same andante sostenuto introduction. A Gluck ballet about Don Juan’s descent into the underworld inspired this opus and its subtitle “Nella casa del diavolo (In the devil’s home).”

In contrast to Mozart, Boccherini initially opposed the release of his own little night music, titled La musica notturna della strade di Madrid (Night music in the streets of Madrid).  As he declared to his publisher, “The piece is absolutely useless, even ridiculous, outside Spain, because the audience cannot hope to understand its significance, nor the performers to play it as it should be played.” It is now one of his most renowned works; we all make mistakes. 
Beginning with dissonant pizzicato strings tolling as church bells, the night watch soldiers then beat their drums on patrol.  On one street corner, ciechi (blind beggars) dance a minuet accompanied by cellos pretending to be guitars. The slow “rosary” movement suggests the free rhythms of monastic chant. Back on the streets, los manolos (rowdy street musicians) sing a lively passacalle, a type of dance music created in passing (passe) along the street (calle).  Perhaps hearing the noise, the night watch returns before their final retreat announcing the city’s curfew.

Boccherini’s quintet for guitar and strings highlights an instrument now identified as iconically Spanish. In Boccherini’s day the fandango was an exciting new dance made sensual by intimate dancing in which the couple never touches.  Intended to be accompanied by guitars and percussion (the strings sometime plays this role with their castanet rhythms), fandangos are typically composed as a series of variations.  This quintet, recycled from two chamber works for cello, uses three movements to set the stage of pastoral Spain before the excitement of the final movement.
Boccherini epitomizes the galant era’s international features. Order from Germany, elegance from France, and string virtuosity from Italy are enhanced by the fiery vigor of Latin rhythms. Welcome to the swirling pulse of Iberia, via Italy.

Dr. Yvonne Kendall

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