The Strad Recommends: Steven Isserlis: Music of the Angels

THE STRAD RECOMMENDS

The Strad Issue: December 2024

Description: Brilliantly committed performances bring Boccherini to life

Musicians: Steven Isserlis (cello) Jonian Ilias Kadesha, Irène Duval (violin) Eivind Ringstad (viola) Luise Buchberger, Tim Posner (cello) Maggie Cole (harpsichord) Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment

Works: Boccherini: Cello Concertos: in A major ‘The Frog’ G475, in D major G479; Cello Sonatas: in C minor G2b, in F major G9; String Quintet in D minor G280, in E major D275: Minuet

Catalogue number: Hyperion CDA68444

It’s worth taking notice when an artist of Steven Isserlis’s stature turns his attention to a less-trodden region of the repertoire. The music of Luigi Boccherini is one such: he remains a composer whose name is recognised far more readily than his output. It’s a good fit for a cellist, too, since that was the instrument Boccherini added to the string quartet in a seemingly unfathomable stream of quintets that appeared alongside a not inconsiderable catalogue of concertos and sonatas.

The craftsmanship of Boccherini’s music is absolute, with everything held in perfect balance, extremes skirted and dramatic ferment studiously avoided. Isserlis and his assembled virtuosos nevertheless highlight another facet of Boccherini’s style: his unerring and individual instinct for the full gamut of string sonorities. Not only is the cello (or cellos) often deployed in its highest register but its combination with other instruments always holds the attention. While there is little of the grit in the oyster that would make much of this music linger longer in the memory, there is enough that variety is maintained from movement to movement. The sequence closes with Boccherini’s greatest hit, the Minuet that shot to fame after starring in a film a lifetime ago. Here all Boccherini’s virtues are on full display: easy melodicism, harmonic sweetness, exquisite string textures and a personal sound world.

DAVID THREASHER