Our program (12 minutes and 22 seconds) features Luigi Boccherini’s “La Tirana Spagnola”. Boccherini (1743-1805) was an early classical era composer and cellist from Italy, whose music retained a courtly galante style while he matured somewhat apart from the major European musical centers. As a young man, Boccherini was recruited to a post in Madrid where he had great success and spent almost the entirety of his career. This work carries the subtitle, “La Tirana Spagnola” because of the recurring motive at the beginning which imitates a small tambourine evoking the “Tirana” – a Spanish dance performed with a tambourine.
This performance by Ars Antigua features members of the Mirabel period instrument string quartet with Jerry Fuller, double bass.