La Ritirata; Josetxu Obregon - Fandango - Boccherini String Quintets

Luigi Boccherini himself was an outstanding cellist and devoted a great deal of space to his instrument in his oeuvre.

He was particularly fond of the string quintet in the special instrumentation of two cellos or cello and double bass, of which he can be considered the inventor - he wrote over 100 works in this genre.

Its origins are closely linked to the court in Spain, where he found a complete string quartet of professional musicians in the Fontin Boadilla del Monte family, whom he joined with his concertante cello.

Cellist Josetxu Obregon and his ensemble La Ritirata have selected four of Boccherini's string quintets for the new CD Fandango.

The quintet's name was inspired by Quintet No. 77, which in the second movement strikes up the rhythm of the popular Spanish dance and requires the cellist to pick up the castanets. But Boccherini also translates his Spanish impressions into music in many other place. In Quintet No. 60 for example, the nightlife in the streets of Madrid is depicted with many sound impressions such as church bells, marching soldiers, beggars playing music and street singers, and Quintet No. 12 takes us to the royal birdhouse with birdsong and twittering.

'La Ritirata's cantabile is sensual, its minuet rhythms warmed by subtly varied up-bowing, and its pastoral moods � as in Op. 11 No. 6, Boccherini's homage to his patron's country palace � limpidly na�ve' � BBC Music Magazine (5 stars)