Boccherini: The Six Quintets for Oboe and Strings, Op. 55

Luigi Boccherini may be considered the greatest Italian composer of instrumental music of the Classical period. While his writing for the string quartet is original and comparable to that of Haydn and Mozart, less well-known, but no less interesting, are his six quintets for oboe and strings Op. 55. Published by Pleyel in 1797, they were most likely written for his Florentine oboist friend Gaspar Barli, who like Boccherini spent most of his life in Madrid.

This set, which the composer referred to as an "opera piccola" (because each work only has two or three movements), presents a refined compositional style, rich in colours, nuanced with a great variety of dynamic and phrasing markings, and featuring an engaging mix of brilliance, lyricism and Spanish folk rhythms. For this recording Alfredo Bernardini plays a rare and original two-key oboe made in Madrid around the year 1800.