When Boccherini added his cello to the quartet they constituted a musical ensemble extraordinary for the time. Moreover Boccherini is credited with composing the first ever string quintets with two cellos: the Infante Don Luis, with whom the composer took up employment in Madrid, already had a string quartet. He became one of the pioneers of the quartet as a distinct genre (by 1767 his quartets had been published in Paris). Only his many compositions for this instrument enable us to assess his accomplishment as a virtuoso.īoccherini gave concert performances of his own music when still an adolescent, and by the age of thirty he was a highly respected composer who had already written a large number of chamber and concert works for the cello as well as other instruments. There were no famous pupils and no treatises on the art of playing the cello. They went down in history as the first string quartet to give public concerts.īy 1768 Boccherini was in Paris, and from there the musician set off for Madrid, where he found employment in the orchestra of the Italian opera and soon married the singer Clementina Pelliccia (it is probably no coincidence that the sole surviving opera by Boccherini bears the title ‘Clementina’).Īs a performer Boccherini had no direct heirs. For six months he played with his friend the violinist Filippo Manfredi, in a quartet that also included Pietro Nardini and Giuseppe Cambini. A year later Luigi performed in Vienna and then in a number of Italian cities, in both orchestras and chamber ensembles. Nonetheless Boccherini made his debut at the age of 13 with a concert in his hometown of Lucca, under the patronage of local maestro di capella Giacomo Puccini (a forefather of the great composer). In those days cellists had few opportunities to play as a soloist. Luigi Boccherini became well-known as a virtuoso musician when he was still a child. He was the only member of the family prepared to follow in his father’s footsteps, taking lessons in singing and cello playing from an early age. Luigi may have selected a different profession due to a limp. Later he successfully trained for a new occupation as librettist, working with Salieri and writing the text for Haydn’s oratorio ‘The Return of Tobias’.
Elder brother Giovanni Gastone was also a ballet dancer. Numerous sisters all became ballerinas (his nephew was the renowned choreographer Salvatore Viganò), except one who opted for a singing career. Luigi Boccherini was born into the family of singer and double-bassist Leopoldo Boccherini.
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