《Sonata No. 6 for Cello and Piano in A Major》

Luigi Boccherini (1743-1805)

Boccherini was an Italian cellist and a prolific composer, particularly of chamber music. His refined, distinctive compositions included over 100 string quintets and just under 100 string quartets. Aside from the development of string quartet, he was also the first person to write a string quintet for two violins, viola and two cellos. His early string quartets use the standard phrasing of the chamber music of the time, but with greater emphasis given to the cello, which is given its own melody to play. Boccherini makes frequent use of the higher parts of the cello’s range, creating a greater variation in the music, from which conveys the music feature of the time. One of the leading cellists of his day, Boccherini wrote numerous sonatas and concertos, and made an important contribution to the development of cello playing technique. His innovations included the frequent use of double stops, fast cross-string bowing, and the rapid changing of holding position. He was also the first cellist to adopt the upper-register thumb position technique. These new techniques helped to give the cello a status similar to that of the violin. Around 30 pieces written by Boccherini for the cello survived; precise dating is difficult to identify because of the similarity in style, but six were published in 1770. In his sonatas, Boccherini generally followed the classical structure of three movements – quick-slow-quick – rather than the four-movement structure that was in vogue by his day. The piece presented on this recording has just selected two movements: a slow and a quick movements. Technically speaking, this is a very demanding work, especially the allegro movement; as the theme is developed, the performer is faced with some challenging fast-paced phrases, notably its thirty-second-notes phrases, and chords. The cello used in this recording is a 1730 Stradivari, known as the “Pawle”, named after an English collector. This instrument is in very good condition; the high notes are particularly impressive. The original red-brown lacquer (characteristic of Stradivari instruments made around 1730) has been well preserved. Boccherini himself is known to have played a Stradivari, therefore, by playing on the violin crafted by Stradivari to reinterpret Boccherini’s cello composition, it not only brings amusement but also bears a significant meaning in music history.