(Lucca, February 19, 1743 - Madrid, May 28, 1805)
The son of a double bass player studied the cello as a child, and at 16, he was already performing in public. In 1757 he went to Rome to finish his studies, immediately after to Vienna, and in 1761 he returned to Lucca, where in 1764, he became the first cello in the orchestra. In Florence, after a few years, he formed the first stable quartet of which any memory is preserved, and in 1767 he met G. B. Sammartini, the great Milanese symphonist in Cremona. From 1768 to '72, he held concerts in Spain with the violinist Manfredi (who had already been part of the quartet), and here he obtained the position of composer and chamber cellist of the Infante Don Luigi. He remained in Madrid all his life, but he had no luck in the circles of the court, so much so that only from Frederick the Great was he able to receive, until 1797, a pension from having dedicated many compositions to the King of Prussia.
With the arrival of Luciano Bonaparte, his conditions underwent a temporary improvement, but he ended his days in the most squalid misery.
Boccherini is the last representative of the glorious Italian instrumental tradition of the 18th century. In a period in which Italian opera reigned over all the theaters of Europe, in which the magnificent school of Corelli, Vivaldi, and Tartini found increasingly rare followers, Boccherini unshakably kept faith in the instrumental genre, to which he dedicated the most significant part of his activity, leaving only a few plays, some oratorio and some cantatas in the vocal field.
In recent times a meritorious re-evaluation of Boccherini's work has been undertaken. He can be considered a typical exponent of eighteenth-century Rococo. Still, we cannot ignore some traits that denote a sensitivity already open to the later developments of music: it is the romanticism that peeps out in certain vibrant melodic lines of his strings, or at least it is the classicist school of Vienna that finds in him, although he did not know the production of Haydn and Mozart, an unexpected counterpart: a sign of the times, now ripe for a renewal of style. Moreover, his instrumental cantability also reveals the influence of the Italian opera of the eighteenth century, absorbed in a temperament inclined to sweet and sometimes languorous tones.
Cellist of the highest class and a composer esteemed by his contemporaries, he introduced a series of essential innovations in the technique of his instrument. His eleven concertos for cello and orchestra (not all of the sure attribution) constitute a milestone in the context of the development of the cell technique. . He left 30 symphonies, of which only a few have been presented to today's audiences. Still, the most significant part of his work lies in chamber production: 16 sextets, 113 quintets for strings, and numerous others for various instrumental ensembles, 102 quartets for strings, and other compositions for different instruments.
In Boccherini's group of Six Symphonies of Opera 12, number 4, La casa del diavolo, is the best known and most performed. It is characterized by the particular expressive intensity of the finale which bears the title "Chaconne qui représente l'Enfer et qui a l'été faite à l'imitation de M. Gluck dans le Festin de pierre"; is a pastiche of the Dance of Ghosts and Furies composed by Gluck for the ballet Don Giovanni or The Stone Guest, and also reused in Orfeo ed Euridice.
The "Devil's House" is divided into three movements, with the recurring theme of the cello present in the first and third, from which the symphony takes its name due to the frenetic succession of scales with mournful pizzicato strings.
It opens with an "Andante sostenuto" that conveys a sense of concern, like a fatal omen. The following "Allegro molto," in sonata form, sees contrasting strings and winds; the trend is flowing, and cantabile and the dramatic atmosphere suggested at the beginning now appears as a hint.
The second movement, “Andantino con moto,” is performed by the strings alone; the staccato rhythm conveys the anguish, and it seems to imagine someone groping in the dark.
The third movement, "Andante sostenuto - Allegro con moto," begins with a disturbing introduction. Repeated notes of the strings and penetrating accents of the oboes, and then the furious chase of scalar, snappy and agitated figures.
