Essentially the chamber musician, the master of the refined and the exquisite, Boccherini often seems to be out of his element when it comes to writing symphonies—or so I have generally thought in the past. This excellent disc makes me think again. Chiara Bianchini's Ensemble 415 (the name comes from the common baroque tuning, a'=415Hz) use period instruments, and use them with a lightness and delicacy that allow full reign to Boccherini's adventurous textures and the precision and refinement of his detail.
The programme is happily varied. The earliest of the four symphonies is a miniature one in D, written in his young days in Italy, as an overture to a cantata; it has a brief central andante grazioso of the utmost charm and sensibility. Then there is the well known La casa del Diavolo Symphony from his Op. 12, of which the outer movements are done with tremendous vitality; the first, an expansive piece (especially when all the repeats are observed, as here), comes out as big and muscular music, with the tensions well sustained through its gentler sections; while the finale is Boccherini's vivid re-composition of a movement from Gluck's Don Juan (the statue scene—more familiar nowadays as the source of the Dance of the Furies in the Paris Orphee). In between is an andantino that in the past has always sounded too eccentric to be really persuasive, but this time with its string textures lovingly characterized (and the inept articulation of the usual Ricordi edition discarded in favour of something more faithful and sensitive), its grace and its warmth clear. Of the two symphonies from the Op. 35 set, the one in A is an exuberant piece, with a strongly argued first movement and an andante with an odd, very personal but typically graceful violin theme supported with pizzicato harmonies: the effect is both charming and touching. The work in F is more substantial, with one of Boccherini's most tightly constructed first movements (some listeners may find, with all repeats, that its central three-note figure carries persistence a shade too far); again there is an appealing and beautifully detailed slow movement, and the finale enfolds a graceful minuet.
Ensemble 415 is quite small, with strings 4.3.2.2.1, and the balance gives plenty of prominence to the wind. The players are excellent stylists, with an acute feeling for tempo and for the filigree quality of Boccherini's string writing. Warmly recommended.'