LUIGI BOCCHERINI

LUIGI BOCCHERINI

A contemporary of Luigi Boccherini once said: "If God chose to speak to man he would employ the music of Haydn; but if he desired to hear an earthly musician, he would select Boccherini." Boccherini was an Italian cellist and composer of the Eighteenth Century. He was born in Lucca in 1743. He first studied music with his father, a double bass player, before being sent to continue his education in Rome in 1757. He returned to Lucca in 1761 to play cello for the local orchestra, then departed on a tour of Austria and France with the violinist Manfredi. Boccherini finally settled in Madrid in 1769, where served the Infante Don Luis, who died in 1785. He was appointed the Court Composer for Frederick William II of Prussia in 1787 and kept that job until the King's death in 1797. Boccherini's fortune went downhill from this point until he himself died in 1805.