Luigi Boccherini - Fandango for 2 Harpsichords & Castanets - Andreas Staier & Christine Schornsheim

Ridolfo Luigi Boccherini ; (Lucca, Italy, February 19, 1743 – Madrid, Spain, May 28, 1805) was an Italian composer and cellist of the Classical era whose music retained a courtly and "galante" style even while he matured somewhat apart from the major European musical centers. He is best known for a minuet from his String Quintet in E, Op. 11, No. 5 (G 275), and the Cello Concerto in B flat major (G 482). The latter work was long known in the heavily altered version by German cellist and prolific arranger Friedrich Grützmacher, but has recently been restored to its original version.

Boccherini also composed several guitar quintets, including the "Fandango", which was influenced by Spanish music. His biographer Elisabeth Le Guin noted among Boccherini's musical qualities "an astonishing repetitiveness, an affection for extended passages with fascinating textures but virtually no melodic line, an obsession with soft dynamics, a unique ear for sonority, and an unusually rich palette of introverted and mournful affects."

Boccherini's works have been gaining more recognition since the late 20th century, in print, record, and concert hall. His "celebrated minuet" (String Quintet in E, Op. 11, No. 5 (G 275)) was popularized through its use in the film The Ladykillers. His famous "Musica notturna delle strade di Madrid" (String Quintet in C major, Op. 30 No. 6, G324), became popular through its frequent use in films such as Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, and its use during the opening of the Barcelona 1992 Summer Olympic Games.

His distinctive compositions for string quintet (two violins, one viola, two cellos), long neglected after his death, have been brought back to life by the Quintet that bears his name in the second half of the 20th century, when two of its founding members discovered a complete collection of the first edition of the 141 string quintets in Paris and began playing and recording them around the world.

Andreas Staier (born 13 September 1955 in Göttingen) is a German pianist and harpsichordist.

Staier studied piano and harpsichord in the Hochschule für Musik in Hanover and Amsterdam. He studied piano with Kurt Bauer and Erika Haase, and harpsichord with Lajos Rovatkay.

From 1983 to 1986 he was the harpsichord soloist for the ensemble Musica Antiqua Köln, touring frequently. At the same time he continued his studies in interpretation of classical and post-classical music on the fortepiano. He resigned from the ensemble in 1986 to embark on his solo career on both harpsichord and fortepiano. He became a touring fortepiano soloist, an accompanist for lieder, and a piano soloist for the ensemble Les Adieux. Between 1987 and 1996 he was Dozent for Cembalo at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel.

Staier has gained a reputation as a distinguished harpsichordist, fortepiano soloist, and chamber music performer. His repertoire includes the music of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. As soloist he has performed with Concerto Köln, the Freiburg Barockorchester, the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, and the Orchestre des Champs-Elysées Paris.

Staier has made a number of recordings, primarily of music from the Baroque through early Romantic eras, and he has performed often on the BBC.

He was awarded the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik (2002 and 2011) and the Prätorius Musikpreis (2008). His Mozart recording 'am Stein Vis-à-vis' was awarded a Diapason d'Or of the year 2007.