Fabio Biondi, Europa Galante - Luigi Boccherini: String Quintets, Guitar Quintets (2011)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 627 Mb | Total time: 59:57+71:17 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Virgin Classics | 5099909633926 | Recorded: 1999-2002
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 627 Mb | Total time: 59:57+71:17 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Virgin Classics | 5099909633926 | Recorded: 1999-2002
Sweet, intimate, and very dry, Fabio Biondi's of Boccherini's Guitar Quintets with players from Europa Galante and guitarist Giangiacomo Pinardi is ineffably charming, but possibly too etiolated for some taste. But it has the feel of polished oak and such a wonderfully evocative sense of place and time that it is hard not to fall for Biondi and Boccherini. Much of the appeal, of course, is Boccherini's music: filled with luminous light and most tender affection, Boccherini is the chamber music equivalent of the young Goya, and it would take a hard heart not to be beguiled by Boccherini's La ritirata di Madrid or swept up in his wonderfully stylized Fandango. Biondi and Europa Galante may be fay, but they match the music's delicate delights. Virgin's sound is close but with a sense of space around it.