A Lot of Music for Your Money ...
Giordano Bruno | Wherever I am, I am. | 05/21/2010
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Eight CDs, 28 symphonies. How could you go wrong?
Actually, I've had this set for quite a while and haven't yet listened to all of it. That probably renders my judgement more eloquently than words. The music is entertaining and the performance is proficient, though not really "au courant" in terms of baroque performance practice, just a little too 'generic' to excite me. I'm reviewing it now only because another amazoonian asked me for my opinion of it. If you really want to 'discover' Boccherini, I'd recommend the symphony recordings by Ensemble 415 and the Berlin Akademie für Alte Musik, or the CD "Fandango" by Les Concerts des Nations.
The symphony was not the genre of music into which Boccherini threw his heart and soul. Most of his symphonies were written for the Hohenzollern court orchestra in faraway Berlin, where he never traveled, which he never heard. The real masterpieces of Boccherini's oeuvre are his string quintets and quartets, his cello sonatas and concertos, and his sublime Stabat Mater."