With a unique tone color and a decidedly individual approach to form, this concerto is a surprisingly unconventional work for the early Classical era. In the meantime, its attractive themes, sprightly rhythms, uncommonly virtuosic cello writing, and imaginative orchestration delight even the least experienced.

Luigi Boccherini (1743 - 1805), so researchers conclude, was the leading cello player of the last decades of the eighteenth century. By the time he was 21, he was known in parts of his native Tuscany as "the great cello player." It is not surprising that he set out from his hometown of Lucca, to make his musical fortune. (He ended up settling permanently in Spain in 1770). Boccherini must have written this concerto in preparation for his 1767 trip with violinist Filippo Manfredi to seek opportunities as a cello virtuoso and composer. He obviously planned it both to dazzle the regular audiences and to advertise his qualities as a composer.

It is about 16 minutes long and is in Boccherini's own adaptation of a concert-allegro form. Unusual qualities present themselves from the very opening phrase. Rather than being in an explicitly fast tempo, the first movement bears the marking Maestoso (Majestic). Furthermore, the opening phrase has the odd length of 11 measures, which would have pleasantly shocked listeners in a day when phrases were nearly always balanced and symmetrical. The biggest shock of all is the presence of two trumpets in the scoring. When even horns were uncommon in concertos, the appearance of trumpets is decidedly strange. In addition there is the unexceptional choice of two oboes in the winds. Oboes and trumpets can combine with each other or with the violins to create an uncommonly bright and martial effect.

Furthermore, Boccherini deftly sidesteps the formal pitfall of the concerto version of the sonata-allegro form. This pitfall is that the musical material is commonly given to the orchestral alone, then repeated for the soloist, and that thereafter the need of both orchestra and soloist to alternate in development, recapitulation, and the concluding material (plus the soloist's first movement cadenza) always tends to inflate the opening movement's dimensions out of balance with the remaining two. Boccherini simply cuts out a lot of this repetition: He curtails the development, so that developmental activity can impress in the cadenza, and he omits the second theme altogether in the recapitulation.

The second movement, Largo cantabile, is in the unexpected key of D major. Except for a brief introduction and coda, the cello is alone throughout, providing its own accompaniment by playing staccato notes on adjacent strings while maintaining a legato line, a very neat feat of composition and challenge for the player.

The finale, Allegro comodo, is a romp full of youthful spirits. It features a frequent approach to final movements on the part of Boccherini, treatments of a single theme that are not so much varied as taken through different instrumental colors and several keys.

© All Music Guide