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Hello,
I have recently published two new unknown works by Boccherini, all done with SYNCHRON-ized SOLO STRINGS:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UGxpmLWAic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QAn0wgKOxw
Greetings
Jacques
Hi @Jacques Lochet,
two beautiful compositions brought to life! Bravo! The Solo strings I find to be an immense challenge and have tried several times to get them to my liking without success. On the other hand, I like what you have done. There are some beautifully played passages which I can imagine were quite tricky to program. I enjoyed them both and my only question would be that I don't understand some of the string sounds around the 13:10 in the video for Opus 9 No3, G173. I couldn't see the score so I am not sure what articulation/technique is being called for and played. It could be my ignorance too so apologies if I am asking a silly question. It's great to be able to realise these previously unheard pieces with the VSL tools and share them.
Regards,
Tom
@mcelvogue said:
Hi @Jacques Lochet,
two beautiful compositions brought to life! Bravo! The Solo strings I find to be an immense challenge and have tried several times to get them to my liking without success. On the other hand, I like what you have done. There are some beautifully played passages which I can imagine were quite tricky to program. I enjoyed them both and my only question would be that I don't understand some of the string sounds around the 13:10 in the video for Opus 9 No3, G173. I couldn't see the score so I am not sure what articulation/technique is being called for and played. It could be my ignorance too so apologies if I am asking a silly question. It's great to be able to realise these previously unheard pieces with the VSL tools and share them.
Regards,
Tom
Hi Tom
Thank you for your compliments, which are really encouraging. Although I only exploit a tiny fraction of the possibilities offered by the individual VSL instruments, the work is still considerable. For each instrument, I simply listen to which articulation sounds best for that musical phrase without going any further. What takes up most of my time is finding the right balance between the volumes of the instruments and also bringing out what is musically important, detecting the important voices and the secondary ones, which is not easy with Boccherini because the writing is so sophisticated. Your question is not at all silly, on the contrary. The sound that surprised you is due to the very special articulation Boccherini called for here, "sul ponticello", which, as luck would have it, is one of the articulations on SYNCHRON-ized SOLO STRINGS. Passing the bow very close to the bridge brings out a lot of high-pitched harmonics, hence that slightly "diabolical" sound.
It always gives me great pleasure to see someone enjoying the work of this genius.
Regards
Jacques
Bravo Jacques! And many thanks for your sensitive and intuitive animations of these two chamber pieces. They've both stimulated my imagination into concocting rich and colourful scenes of high-spirited and most pleasurable conversations at a royal banquet having these musical accompaniments.
Exemplary late 18th century galant style - which of course is largely lost to us nowadays. Our cultural circumstances in Europe today are so very different to those with which Boccherini concerned himself as a composer.
I'm not at all sure why, but a number of times while listening I was nagged by a feeling of wanting more attack from the instruments. Very possibly this has to do with the library itself; I just don't know. Indeed it could be that my wish for more acute attack is simply not in keeping with the period, purpose and style of these two splendid Boccherini pieces, and so I'd ask you not to take this as any sort of serious criticism.
All told, I'm most grateful to you for having taken us into a time, situation and style to which we are now strangers – I loved the excursion. Thanks again, Jacques.
@mark and @Macker:
Thanks so much for the compliments!
When I see Boccherini in period costume and wig, I do feel like I'm in the 18th century, but when I listen to his music, I forget everything and think that his way of feeling is no different from that of our time.
Regarding the attacks, it would be interesting if you could give me an example. I don't need to imagine the style of the time, neither for the attacks nor for anything else. The music speaks for itself, and if the passage is delicate, I interpret it as Mozart, if it's violent, as Beethoven, if it's minimalist, as Phil Glass. Indeed, there are many anticipations of Boccherini, especially Schubert.
Greetings
Jacques
