Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. No. 1 In D Minor, G. 445: 1. Allegro moderato
2. No. 1 In D Minor, G. 445: 2. Cantabile
3. No. 1 In D Minor, G. 445: 3. Minuetto
4. No. 1 In D Minor, G. 445: 4. Finale (Allegro assai)
5. No. 3 In B Flat, G. 447: 1. Allegro moderato
6. No. 3 In B Flat, G. 447: 2. Tempo di minuetto
7. No. 3 In B Flat, G. 447: 3. Adagio
8. No. 3 In B Flat, G. 447: 4. Allegro
9. No. 5 In D, G. 449: 1. Andantino pausato
10. No. 5 In D, G. 449: 2. Minuetto
11. No. 5 In D, G. 449: 3. Allegro giusto
12. No. 5 In D, G. 449: 4. Andantino pausato con variazioni - Allegro giusto
13. No. 7 In E Minor, G. 451: 1. Allegro moderato
14. No. 7 In E Minor, G. 451: 2. Adagio
15. No. 7 In E Minor, G. 451: 3. Minuetto
16. No. 7 In E Minor, G. 451: 4. Allegretto

Disc 2:

1. No. 2 In E, G. 446: 1. Maestoso assai
2. No. 2 In E, G. 446: 2. Adagio - Allegretto
3. No. 2 In E, G. 446: 3. Polacca (Tempo di minuetto)
4. No. 4 In D, G. 448 (Fandango): 1. Pastorale
5. No. 4 In D, G. 448 (Fandango): 2. Allegro maestoso
6. No. 4 In D, G. 448 (Fandango): 3. Grave assai - Fandango
7. No. 6 In G, G. 450: 1. Allegro con vivacità
8. No. 6 In G, G. 450: 2. Andantino lento
9. No. 6 In G, G. 450: 3. Tempo di minuetto
10. No. 6 In G, G. 450: 4. Allegretto
11. No. 9 In C, G. 453 (La Ritirata di Madrid): 1. Alegro maestoso assai
12. No. 9 In C, G. 453 (La Ritirata di Madrid): 2. Andantino
13. No. 9 In C, G. 453 (La Ritirata di Madrid): 3. Allegretto
14. No. 9 In C, G. 453 (La Ritirata di Madrid): 4. La Ritirata di Madrid

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #49153 in Music
• Brand: Philips
• Released on: 1994-01-18
• Number of discs: 2
• Dimensions: .22 pounds

Customer Reviews

barefoot kicker
Boccherini's Quintets for Guitar and Strings do not highlight the guitar as solo instrument in the way that better-known Baroque concerti frame and focus upon their respective solo instruments. Rather, the instrument insinuates itself into a company of strings and plays along with them, sometimes providing a steady background and occasionally emerging as a conventional soloist.

Like a soccer player who becomes an NFL kicker, this unexpected entree of the guitar into an unfamiliar environment displays pleasing crossover skills and unanticipated potentialities.

The Academy of St Martin in the Fields Chamber Ensemble gives a truly splendid performance. Boccherini writes for a vivacious violin, and he certainly finds his desideratum among this ensemble. Indeed, the violin is arguably more prominent in this music than the guitar.

One does not finish a careful hearing of this performance astonished by Pepe Romero's technical virtuosity. Boccherini does not set this artist up for such an outcome. Rather, one concludes with admiration and gratitude for Romero's ability to sublimate certain soloist prerogatives and integrate himself fully into this string-ish company, where he plays with evident cameraderie.

The quality of the sounds produced by the Philips engineers is stunning, a word one strives not to use loosely.

¡Viva Romero and his tribe!

Field goals and extra points, after all, win football games.

Vivid & stylish performances
Pepe Romero teams up with members from the Academy of Saint Martin in the Fields Chamber Orchestra. Though originally released in the late 1970's, this is still the best recording of the guitar quintets of Luigi Boccherini. The playing is first rate, and the balance between guitar and strings is just right. (In most such recordings the guitar is either inaudible or unnaturally bloated.) Personally I'm not fond of all Boccherini's guitar quintets--one critic grumped that they're more fun to play than to hear. But No. 4 with its famous "Fandango" and No. 9 "La Ritirata di Madrid" are delightful.

can't get enough
I've been a Pepe Romero fan for a while, and this CD is one of his best, and the St Martin strings are superb. Extremely well balanced approach to this music.

The reason that it's a five-star is this: I work in the surgery department of a large hospital; we have a front stockroom to our department, and a back stockroom. There is a CD player at each end, which I control since I set up the cases for the surgeons and am constantly in and out of the stockrooms. I put on one CD from this set in the front, the other in the back, and I never get tired of them. I have a lot of CDs, but these get chosen at least one day a week, and I never get tired of them!

One of the secrets is Boccherini's neverending inventiveness; in this he has a lot of the jazz musician in him (before there was jazz!). In a lot of other classical music, you have to kind of wait for the "good parts"; in between the good parts, there is pleasant filler. (Think: William Tell Overture, Poet and Peasant Overture, Beethoven's Fifth, Also Sprach Zarathustra) With Boccherini, it's ALL "good parts". Every bar is creative, inventive, interesting.