Boccherini: Guitar Quintets/String Quartet - Mauro Occhoniero, Fabio Biondi, Europa Galante

Boccherini's works for guitar were all originally composed for other instruments; he later transposed them for a guitar-playing client. There are no real virtuoso turns, therefore, but what we do get is the composer's usual fluid, melodic sense, with the guitar adding a Spanish flavor and a catchy, strong rhythmic underpinning. This is most prominent in the terrific, famous Fandango which closes the D major quintet--which gets a toe-tapping performance without ever degenerating into rambunctiousness--and the final movement of the C major, called "La ritirata di Madrid" (The Procession [or "retreat"] from Madrid). This latter is a set of twelve variations depicting a street band's approach and retreat at night in Madrid, with a slow, quiet build-up and a correspondingly measured de-crescendo, as if the procession were fading into the distance. It's a wonderful piece. Between the two guitar-centered works is a plain old string quartet, which is anything but; it contains all of Boccherini's niceties, such as off-the-beat pulses and exquisite lyricism. All of the playing on this CD, under the direction of Fabio Biondi is superb, with the period instruments generating an ideal tonal balance among themselves. --Robert Levine