Word: boccherini
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...specialized in operas and cantatas, Scarlatti was one of the first to write a real string quartet. This one, full of surprising glints and glows, is played to perfection by one of the U.S.'s finest ensembles. On the same disk: quartets by Tartini and Boccherini...
While a loudspeaker rippled out Mozart symphonies and Boccherini sextets and concessionaires did a brisk business in peanuts, long lines of Back Bay dowagers, soda jerks, businessmen and urchins filed through the five long exhibition tents to see what they could see. There was a handsome, windswept Yacht Race by old (82) Portraitist Charles Hopkinson, an expressionistic Adoration of the Magi by David Aronson, paintings by such artists as John Atherton, Gardner Cox, John Marih, George Grosz. And, from lesser lights, there were rows of wild abstractions and novelties, e.g., a huge sculpture done in living moss festooned with geraniums...
...sensational first tour of the U.S. with a Manhattan recital that made some quartet history itself. Acknowledging their audience with businesslike bows, the four young (average age 29) musicians stroked into one of their countrymen's compositions for a starter. Unhampered by scores, they seemed to play Boccherini's Quartet in D., Op. 6 with an air of almost impudent informality, sometimes glancing boldly around the audience as they played. For those used to staidness from string quartets, the atmosphere had something of the wild freedom of coasting downhill on a bike, no hands...
...England's best cellists, Samuel and Joseph Zimbler appeared together in Boccherini's C major Quintet. Once again, the music was routine; the cleverly-scored last movement was the only part that showed marks of inspiration. The ensemble sounded best in this work: the instruments blended well together, except for Wolfe Wolfinsohn's violin. Wolfinsohn, after playing extremely well for the first two concerts, finally had a bad night. His tone was squeeky, and he did little more than hit the right notes...
...with Christmas, survived the fate of his other works so long relegated to the limbo of forgotten music. Only Bach has escaped the dense fog of obscurity that surrounds almost every composer before Haydn. It is lamentable enough that such acknowledged masters as Palestrina, Scarlatti, Corelli, Vivaldi, Purcell, and Boccherini should be worshipped from afar but rarely heard in American concert halls...