La Magnifica Comunità

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

La Magnifica Comunità is an Italian ensemble for Baroque music and classical chamber music. Its recordings show what it is known for: the work of Luigi Boccherini. The group recorded all the string quintets in a multi-volume series, including opuses 11, 13, 18 and 20, and also the complete guitar quintets. Records with Antonio Vivaldi, the violin concertos Op. 8 including Le Quattro Stagioni, and with a Christmas cantata by Alessandro Stradella have also appeared.

Music and breakthrough

Boccherini himself was born in Lucca in 1743 and was a cellist and composer of the Classical period. He worked in Madrid under a Spanish patron, the Infante Luis Antonio, and wrote much of his best-known work there. His chamber music often follows the model of Joseph Haydn, but gives the cello a larger role. The minuet from the String Quintet in E, Op. 11 No. 5, is his best-known piece. The finale of the fourth guitar quintet is a fandango, a lively Spanish dance.

Influence

By recording this music in a fixed series, La Magnifica Comunità brings to the fore a composer who long stood in the shadow of Haydn and Mozart. The ensemble plays an elegant, galant music with plenty of dance and song. Anyone who wants to hear Boccherini and Vivaldi as they were meant to be heard, in a small line-up with clear lines, will find a good way in here.

Listening

Discography

Studio albums

• 1999Alessandro Stradella: Cantata per la Notte del SS.mo Natale
• 2005String Quintets, Vol. I
• 2006Guitar Quintets (complete)
• 2006String Quintets, Vol. II: 6 Quintets, op. 11
• 2006String Quintets, Volume III: 6 String Quintets, op. 13
• 2007Le Quattro Stagioni / Violin Concertos op. 8 (complete)
• 2007String Quintets, Vol. IV: 6 String Quintets, op. 18
• 2008String Quintets, Vol. V: 6 String Quintets, op. 20
• 2008String Quintets, Vol. VI: 6 String Quintets, op. 25
• 2008Violin Sonatas, op. 1
• 2009String Quintets, Vol. VII: 6 String Quintets, op. 27
• 20108 Concerti Solenni
• 2010Le Passioni dell'Uomo: Violin Concertos
• 2010String Quintets, Vol. VIII: 3 String Quintets, op. 39 With Double Bass
• 2011String Quintets, Vol. IX: 6 String Quintets, op. 28
• ?Brandenburg Concertos Nos. 2, 4 & 5