Luigi Boccherini

Boccherini was a cellist and composer. He trained in Lucca and Rome, and toured with the violinist Filippo Manfredi before moving to Spain in 1768, where he remained. He served the Infante Don Luis in Spain, where he played with the Font family and wrote string quintets for two cellos. Quartets, trios, symphonies, concertos, sacred music and the quintets with guitar fill out his catalogue. The Musica notturna delle strade di Madrid evokes street singers, drums and a night watch that walks away into silence. He died in Madrid in 1805. His own catalogue and numerous manuscripts were destroyed during the Spanish Civil War. Three further cello sonatas were discovered in Milan in 1982. The modern catalogue of the music was the work of the French musicologist Yves Gérard; the pieces carry G numbers. Published in 1969, it lists twenty-nine cello sonatas alongside the quintets and quartets.