The music of Luigi Boccherini is some of the most elegant and refined of the era that emerged out of the Baroque and eventually arrives at the Classical Era. Boccherini lived in this in-between time. He began writing polyphonic music and switched to homophonic writing after he met Sammartini. Both Sammartini and Boccherini were composers of the Galante Style. A few others of note were two of J.S.Bach’s sons. The Galante Style music was simpler, predictable if you will, and focused on melodies that were singable, or memorable. Boccherini is special, especially to cellists, because he developed cello writing: his chamber music works give the cello interesting lines and his own virtuosic playing an outlet. He was a composer/cellist in the Spanish court for a large part of his career, so we even refer to him as Italian/Spanish. If you’re looking for new pieces from the old eras, look to Boccherini. His works are played less, but you can find a lot of very fine Chamber Music, Symphonies and Cello and Violin Concertos. He includes guitar and castenets in a few works.
More in the show notes at https://accelerandocast.com/show_notes/