Luigi Boccherini

Luigi Boccherini was born in Lucca, Tuscany, on 19 February 1743, into a family of artists. His father, Leopoldo, was a double bass player and cellist; his brother Giovanni Gastone became a dancer and poet and wrote libretti for Haydn and Salieri. Luigi learned the cello from his father, then from the choirmaster of Lucca Cathedral. He progressed so quickly that he gave his first public concert at thirteen.

Around 1756 he went to Rome to study further with the cellist Giovanni Battista Costanzi. In 1757 he and his father were engaged in the court theatre orchestra in Vienna, where he made several stays until 1764. He made a name as a virtuoso cellist and began composing, particularly trios and string quartets. Indeed, he was one of the first composers, alongside Haydn, to write string quartets.

Back in Lucca he played in the city chapel and, with the violinist Filippo Manfredi and other Tuscan musicians, formed one of the first permanent string quartets in history. In 1767 he went on tour with Manfredi and performed in Paris at the Concert Spirituel. The success was immense, and Parisian publishers issued his works. The Spanish ambassador encouraged him to go to Madrid.

In 1769 Boccherini settled in Spain, where he spent the rest of his life. In 1770 he became cellist and composer to the Infante Don Luis de Borbón, brother of King Charles III. When the Infante, after a marriage deemed unworthy, was exiled from court, Boccherini followed him to the small village of Arenas de San Pedro at the foot of the Sierra de Gredos. There, in peace, he composed a great deal of chamber music, notably for the Infante’s family quartet.

Boccherini wrote more than a hundred string quintets, a form he made his speciality, often with two cellos, allowing him to play a brilliant high part himself. His Quintet Op. 11 No. 5 contains the famous Minuet, one of the best-known tunes in classical music. In Night Music of the Streets of Madrid (1780) he evokes the bells, soldiers, beggars and guitarists that enliven the Spanish capital at nightfall.

When the Infante died in 1785 Boccherini lost his patron. He obtained a post as chamber composer to King Frederick William II of Prussia, an amateur cellist, to whom he regularly sent new works from Madrid. He also worked for the Duchess of Benavente and her musical salon. In the 1790s he composed quintets with guitar, including the famous “Fandango”, which incorporates a rhythmic Spanish dance with castanets.

His last years were hard: he lost his first wife, Clementina, then his second wife and several of his children. His patrons disappeared and his publishers paid him poorly. He died in poverty in Madrid on 28 May 1805. In 1927 his remains were transferred to the church of San Francesco in Lucca. His elegant, melodious, refined style makes him one of the great masters of chamber music and the cello.