I dodici concerti per violoncello e orchestra di Luigi Boccherini

The cello concertos by Luigi Boccherini represent a corpus of works composed between 1761 and 1771. Excluded from the composer’s authentic catalogue and only partially given to print by publishers contemporary with him, they have been little researched by musicologists throughout history and almost completely excluded from the programs of international concert seasons. However, their relevance, both from an artistic and instrumental technique standpoint, more specifically, offers important food for thought for their reappraisal and desirable reinsertion among the major cello concertos of the 18th century. The essay aims to provide an overview of the style and idiomatic features of Boccherini’s solo writing, on the basis of an overall analysis of the compositional forms and language of the composer set in the context of the stylistic evolutions and cello technique of the late 18th century.