Programmes

At Arenas de San Pedro:
the Infante’s quintets.

Much of Boccherini’s output for string quintet was written in the service of the Infante Luis de Borbón, whose musician he was from 1770 to 1785. When the Infante was banished from the court of Madrid and withdrew to his palace at Arenas de San Pedro, in Ávila, the composer followed him: it was in that household, and for private chamber music, that his quintets took shape. Our work starts there, from the sources and the chamber music practice of those years.

In collaboration with the Centro Studi Boccherini in Lucca.

• G. 291Quintet in F major
• G. 292Quintet in G major
• G. 294Quintet in A minor
• G. 310Quintet in C major
• G. 312Quintet in B flat major
• G. 341Quintettino in D minor “A compas de Fandango”
• G. 350Quintettino in B minor
• G. 376Quintet op. 51 no. 1 in C minor
• G. 348Quintet op. 42 no. 1 in F minor
• Quintettino “per la Musica notturna delle strade di Madrid”

Chamber music journeys.

1. 01 — Chamber visions between dream and rigour

   The Dance and the Mirror

   Luigi Boccherini · String Quintet op. 30 no. 6 “La musica notturna delle strade di Madrid”Luigi Cherubini · String Quintet no. 1 in E minor

   The vitality of Madrid’s streets, evoked by Boccherini through dance rhythms and echoes of guitars and castanets, meets Cherubini’s contrapuntal rigour and introspective intensity. Two faces of Italian Classicism, united by the warm, deep sonority of two cellos.

2. 02 — Time’s journey towards infinity

   Light and the Absolute

   Luigi Boccherini · String Quintet in C major G. 310Franz Schubert · String Quintet in C major D. 956

   From Boccherini’s luminous grace and elegant dialogue to the expressive depth of Schubert’s final quintet: a journey between eighteenth-century elegance and Romantic unease. In Schubert’s celebrated Adagio, time seems suspended between contemplation and dramatic tension.

3. 03 — The Classicism of Boccherini and Mozart unveiled

   Secret Symphonies

   Luigi Boccherini · String Quintet in B flat major G. 312, op. 28 no. 6Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart · Grande Sestetto Concertante in E flat major, after the Sinfonia Concertante K. 364

   The lyricism and balance of Boccherini’s quintet introduce a chamber perspective on Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante. In the period transcription for sextet, with a guest performer, the orchestral texture becomes an intimate dialogue, revealing the work’s singing quality and expressive contrasts.

4. 04 — Opera in the song of strings

   The Illusion of Opera

   Giuseppe Maria Cambini · Quintet no. 1 in E flat majorLuigi Cherubini · Quintet no. 1 in E minor

   Five string instruments evoke the operatic stage without singers. Cambini’s melodic freshness and lively exchanges, recalling the spirit of opera buffa, are answered by Cherubini’s dramatic intensity, with counterpoint, tension and contrasts that look towards Romanticism.

5. 05 — Violated humanity in Boccherini’s Stabat Mater

   The Song of Gentle Sorrow

   Luigi Boccherini · Quintettino for strings in E major G. 275, op. 11 no. 5Luigi Boccherini · Stabat Mater for soprano and strings G. 532, original version of 1781

   Can the most lacerating pain be told with sweetness, composure and grace? The project explores Boccherini’s stylistic paradox: narrating tragedy without ever shouting, turning weeping into consoling beauty. The luminous Quintettino in E major, whose Minuet spreads a veil of acoustic purification over the room, introduces the Stabat Mater in its rare original 1781 version for soprano and five strings: an intimate, almost whispered meditation that strips the Virgin’s sorrow of all theatrical rhetoric.

6. 06 — Rhythm and Italian passion from Boccherini’s Fandango to Bazzini’s virtuosity

   Strings of Fire

   Luigi Boccherini · Quintettino for strings in D minor G. 341 “A compas de Fandango”Antonio Bazzini · String Quintet in A minor

   Some programmes set the hall alight from the first notes. Here the most visceral, rhythmic and overwhelming side of the Italian repertoire for strings joins eighteenth-century elegance to nineteenth-century fiery energy: Boccherini’s celebrated Quintettino “A compas de Fandango” makes the strings imitate the scrape of strummed chords and the stamp of heels, drawing the audience into the warm atmosphere of Madrid’s festivals, while Bazzini’s monumental Quintet — a violinist celebrated across Europe, best known for his “La ronde des lutins” op. 25 — unleashes breathtaking virtuosity, sudden turns and an almost percussive rhythmic drive. Five strings for a concert of the highest emotional tension, where the Italian temperament vibrates in all its extraordinary power.