-Next on "Great Performances"...
I'm Scott Yoo.
In the 1700s, Luigi Boccherini was Europe's greatest cellist.
Paganini to the violin.
Boccherini to the cello.
-Absolutely.
-Boccherini became famous not for his hundreds of compositions... -He went viral before that was even a thing.
[ Laughter ] -...instead for a musical love letter to his adopted home called... -Msica Notturna delle Strade de Madrid.
-I'll take an all-night journey through the streets of Madrid... You guys are awesome!
-Thank you!
-...with four great young players so we can get to know today's night music... and the nearly forgotten brilliance of Luigi Boccherini.
- Sola ser -Coming up on "Now Hear This."
-I could literally listen to that all day.
-"Boccherini: Night Music."
Major funding for "Great Performances" is provided by... ...and by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you.
Thank you.
-Tonight, all night, I'm in Madrid with four great players, young enough to pull me along.
We had planned a walking tour of Madrid's music, inspired by Luigi Boccherini's famous "Night Music of the Streets of Madrid," which captured the sound of the city 250 years ago.
And we started with an evening recording session with Alana Sinkey.
With me were two big fans of Boccherini -- cellists Alex Hersh and Brannon Cho -- plus violinist Maria Ioudenitch and violist Cristina Cordero, from Madrid herself.
-[ Singing in Creole ] [ Laughter ] -You are early.
-Sorry!
-You are early.
-We are.
Shoot.
Okay.
-So, the pizzicato is -- -It's fine.
-It's fine.
So let's go from the pizzicato together.
-Okay.
-[ Singing in Creole ] [ Clicking tongue rhythmically ] [ Singing in Creole ] -One more measure.
-Ah.
-One more measure.
-There's an extra half bar.
-Okay.
So can we just do that one more time in the same place, now that we know what we're playing?
-Okay.
Perfect.
I'm going to listen from inside.
-Okay.
Okay.
Three, four, five, six, seven -[ Singing in Creole ] -Alana, I've been listening to your music, and it's -- it's so fresh.
And I was just wondering.
How did you come up with this?
-My father used to mix my folkloric music from my country, from Guinea-Bissau, with flamenco.
I also grew up listening to jazz, more neosoul.
So I ended up doing something that is in Creole.
It's in my native language.
But also with a jazzy twist to it.
[ Singing in Creole ] -This piece is kind of a reflection of you.
-Yeah.
-But you are kind of a reflection of Madrid, right?
Which is also a combination of all of these influences that kind of swirl in from everywhere.
-I always thought that it was very eclectic and a lot of different communities living together.
So it's like the perfect place to have these type of ideas.
[ Singing in Creole ] -We took to the streets to hear some of Madrid's eclectic sounds to see what they could teach us about the Night Music of Boccherini.
It's beautiful here.
-Yes.
-We started in a historic plaza with guitarist Luis Regidor.
- Lo mismo que el fuego fatuo Lo mismito es el querer Lo mismo que el fuego fatuo Lo mismito es el querer Le huyes y te persigue Le llamas y echa a correr Lo mismo que el fuego fatuo Se desvanece el querer -Bravo, Luis.
It's so intimate to hear you play from a meter away.
It's just -- What a great experience.
So that's de Falla.
-That's Manuel de Falla.
It's "Cancin de fuego fatuo."
-Which means what?
-The song talks about the will-o'-the-wisp, which are these lights that appear in cemeteries and swamps.
And people thought in the old times they were spirits.
-Hm.
-So the song talks about how love is like a will-o'-the-wisp.
So when you go after it, it runs away.
And when you run from it, it comes after you.
-That's actually pretty accurate.
-I think so.
I think composers always used folklore.
I mean, even Mozart or Beethoven or Bach would be using that.
You have the technique, but you need...
The inspiration comes from the folk, from the people, always.
-I mean, that's a pretty clever device, right, to introduce folklore into your music.
It makes it really relevant to everyone.
-Falla made the connection between the Andalusian folklore and the "classical music."
I don't like to say "classical," but you know... -Sure.
But, you know... it seems to me that part of the reason we still listen to it today is because it comes from that folklore.
You know, it's really nice to see that folk element still inspires musicians of today, like you.
-Yeah.
I agree.
[ Laughs ] -Today's Night Music may be inspired by classic Spanish composers and folklore, but the music of Boccherini's time was dominated by other Italians, including our old friend from "Now Hear This" episode 3, Domenico Scarlatti.
Nearby, the Palace of Fernn Nez was built in Boccherini's time.
There we met pianist and conductor Ivn Martn.
Great, Ivn.
Fantastic.
-Thank you.
-Bravo.
-So, keyboard and opera, that was the principal forces on the Spanish court.
-Scarlatti.
-Yes, of course.
Scarlatti was a fantastic composer, very important for the Queen.
As you see, strings were not important.
Just only for accompaniment or doing secondary roles.
-Hm.
So that's why Scarlatti never wrote a violin sonata.
-Yeah.
That's -- That's a pity.
But he was more concentrated on the keyboard music.
Scarlatti was so important for the Queen that when Scarlatti died, the Queen was completely heartbroken, and she died one year after that.
-Hm.
-And the King was also heartbroken because of the Queen's death, and he died one year after.
-Hm.
So, on one year, there's a complete change in the monarchy.
-Completely.
-So what happens after that?
-So then comes a new king, Charles III.
Unfortunately, he wasn't interested in music, so he wanted a completely different scenario for his court, and that started a new era of music.
-That new era was Luigi Boccherini, and he landed here in what's now a suburb of Madrid.
We visited earlier that day with musicologist Guiomar Bianco.
-So, we are entering the gardens of the Palacio Infante Don Luis.
Don Luis was the younger brother of King Charles III.
-It was the Prince, Infante Don Luis, who brought Boccherini from Italy to Spain.
-Boccherini was the most renowned cellist at the time.
He hired him as a performer to perform string music, and also as a composer.
So, we are in the Classical era, just before Mozart and Beethoven.
And we have Haydn, in Vienna, inventing the string symphonies.
And he is considered the father of the string quartet.
But some musicologists argue that Boccherini, when he was touring in Italy, he had already started to compose music for the quartet.
So it might have been earlier than Haydn.
-Wow.
-Wow.
-During his stay here in Boadilla, Boccherini composed over 90 works.
So we have duos, trios.
We have sonatas, symphonies.
And here he composed several of his famous quintets.
And as he was a cellist, he added himself and created this format of quintets with two cellos.
-Well, we have two cellists here.
Why don't we play some cello quintets?
-That's good.
Let's go!
-Okay.
-Oh.
Bravo, guys.
Fantastic.
-Thank you.
It's pretty wild that this is written just before Boccherini, and people are experimenting with what the cello can do.
And this piece is -- It goes kind of into, I'd say, the viola range.
It goes high, but not anything crazy.
And it's Boccherini who really takes things to the next level.
-He really developed thumb position, and that's when we bring our thumb up, and it becomes an extra finger.
So... And suddenly, we can be a cello, we can be a viola, we can be a violin, as well.
-There's a few instances of thumb position beforehand.
We see it in Bach and stuff like that, but it's very sparse, very functional.
And it's pretty cool to think that just modern cello playing and modern cello making is all kind of coming together right around the same time.
Hey, let's play that Boccherini sonata, the one with that crazy thumb position.
-Do you want to start it?
-No.
You start.
I'll take the next part.
We'll switch back and forth.
-Okay.
We'll switch.
We'll switch.
-Bravo.
Bravo.
-Bravo, guys.
-Even for us today, it's a real challenge to play with the thumb and to play high.
So even 300 years later, Boccherini is challenging us.
-So Paganini to the violin.
Boccherini to the cello.
-Absolutely.
Boccherini takes this new range of the cello, this "violin range," and applies it to the string-quartet genre, making a cello quintet.
So there's two cellos.
Personally, I think all music should have two cellos in it.
-At least two cellos.
-At least!
-[ Laughter ] -It makes things better.
But what's so cool about that is we have this added sonority, this whole new sound world and genre of music, and chamber music specifically.
-And since then, many other composers have used this cello quintet format.
So we can thank Boccherini for that.
-Absolutely.
-It's hard to imagine how original this was, using a bass instrument to trade soprano lines with the first violin.
Only a virtuoso of Boccherini's caliber would even attempt it.
In Madrid's Gardens of Sabatini, we met Luis again, now with singer Miryam Latrece and Argentine guitarist Laicha.
- No pude ver Lo equivocada que estaba Lo que realmente importaba No descifr Las seales que la vida me daba Si te fall Fue la tristeza que invadi mi ser Y yo tengo la esperanza De que entiendes Esto que me pasa Si estoy rota por dentro Y mi luz yo no la encuentro Dame tu mano, amor Si estoy desesperada Y he perdido la calma, perdname, mi amor Y si no encuentro las palabras acertadas Pa' contarte, por favor, esprame Que es cuando todo parece volver a quererte Como sola hacer Que cuando todo parece volver a quererte Como sola hacer Ole.
Ole.
Si estoy desesperada Y he perdido la calma, perdname, mi amor Y si no encuentro las palabras acertadas Pa' contarte, por favor, esprame Que es cuando todo parece Volver a quererte Como sola hacer Que es cuando todo parece Volver a quererte Como sola hacer [ Vocalizes ] -Bravo!
-Whoo!
-I could literally listen to that all day.
-[ Laughs ] -Who wrote the piece?
-I did.
-Yo la escrib.
-Very impressive.
-Gracias.
-What were your influences when you wrote the piece?
-En mi infancia, sobre todo, escuch mucha copla, que es el folklore de aqu de Espaa.
Y siempre tuve tambin mucha conexin con la msica cubana.
Y tambin con la mexicana.
Un poco de todo, no?
Siempre nos ha llegado y hemos enviado mucho.
Hemos estado siempre abrazados.
-So lots of Latin American influences.
-Muchsimo.
S.
-De alguna manera, compartimos la misma raz, que es la raz hispana de toda esa msica.
-Total.
-Desde Mxico a Argentina, yo creo que hay una cosa en comn.
-La conexin que hay entre Espaa y Latino Amrica al final es una influencia continua mutuamente.
Entonces, la msica de Latino Amrica est muy influenciada por la msica espaola, y al revs.
Est todo el rato... Es como... un crculo que no se termina.
Entonces, es todo una historia que no se termina.
-It's all a big circle.
-Eso es.
-Latin American musical ideas are important today as they were in Boccherini's time -- and so was the guitar.
In the Prince's Chapel, we'd hear how it inspired him, from Rafael Aguirre.
-Bravo.
-So, when Boccherini came to Spain, the guitar was already very popular, you know, was being played on the streets of Madrid, of all Spain, as it is today.
You know, it's our national instrument.
Boccherini also came here, bringing a very classical influence, you know, from Italy.
But he also, of course, was very much influenced by the music we had here and the guitar that he heard everywhere.
We had also some composers, contemporaries of Boccherini, like Fernando Ferandiere or Antonio Ximnez.
They were violinists that took over the guitar.
They became guitarists, and they wrote also pieces.
Actually, they sound very violinistic for the guitar sometimes.
And I'm thinking, Scott, why don't we play this trio by Ximnez?
What do you think?
-Where do I play?
-Uh, this one here.
-That's -- I can't read that.
It's too small.
-Oh, really?
-Maria, you read it.
-Maria!
Yes.
-Okay... -And Brannon?
Yes.
Join me.
Join me.
Let's play here, this one.
-It's so simple, it's difficult.
-Very simple.
-Is it?
So then maybe we should play Boccherini.
You know?
-Yeah.
-Let's play the minuet from the first quintet.
-Not as simple, right?
-Yeah.
That's really, really good.
-Okay, let's try.
-Boccherini was the first to integrate guitar into classical music in the guitar quintet, swapping that second cello for a guitar -- a format he could have invented only once he had come to Spain.
Boccherini was also inspired by the rhythms of Spanish music.
Back on our night tour, we'd hear more from flamenco musicians Alejandro Hurtado and David Domnguez.
With them was Ima Salomn from Spain's National Ballet.
-Whoo!
-Wow!
-Wow!
[ Applause ] -Bravo!
-Thank you!
-So that's a bulera.
-Yes, it is.
-So, when you account for the time... -Mm-hmm.
-...are you thinking to yourself, "1-2-3, 4-5-6.
1-2-3, 4-5-6"?
How do you count the time?
-We count by 12 times.
Uh, Alex?
-S, es un comps de 12 tiempos.
Aunque se puede escribir perfectamente en 6/8 y 3/4.
La acentuacin sera la siguiente.
-1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2.
1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2.
-Wow.
1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2.
1-2, 1-2, 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2, 1-2... Wow!
Interesting.
So are all the Flamenco dances in 12 or no?
-Dentro de la familia de la bulera, tenemos otros compases, como son la sole y las alegras, que s que estn en comps de 12 tiempos.
-Doce?
Okay.
-Pero luego tenemos otras familias diferentes, como pueden ser la familia de los tangos, que son compases binarios.
-Tango de Argentina?
-No, tango de Argentina no.
-Sera -- Es una cosa diferente.
-Tangos are in 2?
-Binarios, dos.
-Eso es.
Y la acentuacin sera de esta manera.
-Wow!
Wow.
-Wow!
Okay.
So... -Bulera.
12.
Tango, binario.
Y... -Y tenemos la familia y el mundo de los fandangos.
-Fandango?
-Fandangos.
S, digamos que es un comps ternario aunque el ciclo natural tambin tiene 12 tiempos.
Pero lo sentimos como a tres.
-Es totalmente diferente.
-S.
Estn los tres tiempos.
Lo que pasa que los cambios armnicos, la acentuacin a veces, tiene otro carcter.
-He has the most marvelous rhythm I've ever seen.
It's incredible.
-[ Laughter ] -You know, Boccherini wrote a fandango.
We should -- We should play it.
Maybe with them.
Maybe you can dance.
-Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
-Por supuesto.
-Let's do it.
-Let's do it.
-The "Fandango" is a folk dance from Boccherini's time that's still danced today.
Many Spanish composers brought it into their music, but Boccherini's guitar-quintet "Fandango" was perhaps the most faithful.
Boccherini had brought string music to Spain, invented his quintet forms, and composed over 100 works, but he was yet to write his most famous piece.
We met Ivn again to hear how it happened.
-Boccherini had moved to Madrid, been there for a decade.
And, of course, he fell in love with the city.
At that time, he was in the service of Infante Don Luis, the King's younger brother.
The Prince married a commoner.
And the King didn't like that and sent him away... and, of course, and with him, the whole court, Boccherini included.
So probably this is the way that Boccherini ended up living in a castle like this beautiful one that we have here.
During that time, there were plenty of castles all around, especially throughout the Sierra de Madrid.
So, Boccherini missed Madrid so much, particularly the energy of the night time and the streets of Madrid, and he immediately started to work on a new composition titled... Musica Notturna delle Strade di Madrid.
-I think this is the piece I read that Boccherini said that this piece is absolutely useless for anyone living outside of Spain.
The performers won't know how to play it, and the audience will have no shot at understanding it.
And I think the reason for that is that it's so Madrid.
It's so specific.
There are so many inside jokes in the piece, it seems.
-That's correct.
At that time, there were hundreds of manuscripts and copies, completely unauthorized.
-Wow.
-So the problem was that, perhaps for him, it was quite surprising to be famous because of that kind of piece, and not for 100 quintets or 100 quartets and a lot of symphonies that he wrote.
-He went viral before that was even a thing.
-Completely.
-[ Laughter ] -So, Boccherini wrote seven movements, which are intended to be from the sunset to curfew.
So, he added some very specific instructions in Italian about how the movements had to be played.
First one... [ Speaking Italian ] The Ave Maria bells sounded 30 minutes, approximately, after the sunset every day.
And it creates a very nice and very specific atmosphere.
-Wow.
Can we try?
-Yeah.
-Does that sound like bells?
-Absolutely.
Bravo.
Then we have another instruction.
[ Speaking Italian ] -Something like that?
-Bravo.
That's amazing.
And there is also one very funny indication.
[ Speaking Italian ] Strum.
Strings.
As a guitar.
Yeah.
That's -- There's one important detail.
With your fingernails.
-Ohh... -Using that part of the hand.
Yes.
-Madrileos in Boccherini's time would have instantly recognized the sounds of their city, including the cellos played like strumming guitars to imitate strolling troubadours... who still roam the streets of Madrid tonight.
So, is Madrid always like this at night?
Like, on a Friday night?
-Yes.
Most of the days, yes.
-It's like a party!
-Yes, it's always a party, actually.
-Does it ever clear out?
-No.
[ Laughs ] - Espaa siempre ha sido y ser -La boia!
- La boia del Pen de Gibraltar -Everybody!
- Por eso se oye este refrn Que viva Espaa Y siempre la recordarn Que viva Espaa La tuna canta con ardor Que viva Espaa La vida tiene otro sabor Y Espaa es la mejor [ Cheers and applause ] -Thank you.
-You guys are awesome!
-Thank you!
-So, is this what you do?
You play in the streets?
-This is what we do pretty much every week.
-Just right here or you go other places?
-All over the central part of town, yeah.
-Where are you going next?
-We're going to this place, Plaza de Santa Ana.
-Can we follow you?
-Sure.
-Awesome.
Let's go.
Okay.
-Vamos.
-So, where did you all meet each other?
-Once you start college, in your first college years, you join this band.
They teach you how to play, how to sing.
-Oh, no kidding!
You learned it at college?
-Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah.
None of us has any formal musical training.
We just love music.
-But enough -- to be able to do this.
-Enough for people to like what we do.
-So a tradition for how long?
For 20 years or 30 years?
-This goes back to the Middle Ages.
-Really?
-When the first universities in Spain started.
-It's like 500 years.
-More than that.
Yeah.
There were always some students, mostly poor students, who could not really afford to eat or drink that much.
So they went around to bars and the restaurants, you know, singing for a plate of food.
-Singing for their meal?
-Singing for their meal.
-No kidding?
-Yeah.
-We continue that tradition, and we mostly use it to have fun and connect with the people.
Al son de las guitarras Y seguidillas Y seguidillas, Manolos y Manolas De cuatro en fila -Tell me about some of these patches.
-One of the most important parts of our outfits is the cape, which shows two things.
-Where you played?
-The places all around the world where we've been singing.
-Whoa!
New York.
-Many different countries.
Fantastic!
Argentina.
Everywhere.
-Yeah, pretty much everywhere.
-Hm.
What about these ribbons?
-We are Spanish troubadours, so we serenade beautiful ladies.
And whenever we meet one, we ask her for a ribbon.
-A ribbon.
It's beautiful.
-So it's like a gift from them to us.
-Yeah.
-Ol!
Ol!
[ Cheers and applause ] -What was that song called?
-This is called "Marcha de la Manolera."
It's from an old zarzuela, a kind of Spanish opera.
-Sure.
Sure.
And so what is it about?
-It's about the manolos.
The manolos were the young people from a specific neighborhood in Madrid who dressed in peculiar fashion, as we do, and who went around to different places singing popular songs.
-So it's about you?
-Yeah, it's pretty much -- -Minstrels singing.
-Minstrels.
Troubadours.
Manolos in Madrid.
-Fantastic.
Fantastic.
-Yeah.
-So, I think I'll try to play with you, but I'm gonna make a lot of mistakes.
-Well, we usually do, as well.
-Okay.
So I'll fit right in.
-You're gonna fit perfectly in.
Yeah.
Exactly.
Exactly.
-Okay.
Here we go.
-[ Laughs ] Okay.
Great.
So, teach me.
Start on G sharp.
-Right.
-Okay.
-Then we'll repeat.
-And then repeat?
-Yeah.
-Okay.
Let's try it.
Alright.
-Un, dos, tres, y... Al son de las guitarras Y seguidillas Y seguidillas, Manolos y Manolas De cuatro en fila Manolos y Manolas -It's amazing to think this troubadour tradition was already 400 years old when Boccherini walked these streets.
He may have been thinking of them when he wrote his Night Music.
Que cante con ms garbo ni con ms rumbo Que cante con ms garbo ni con ms rumbo Ni con ms rumbo, ni con ms rumbo [ Cheers and applause ] -Round of applause goes to you.
Fastest learner I've ever met.
-After midnight, which was curfew in Boccherini's time, the streets start to clear out, and Madrid is getting quiet.
I was thinking about Boccherini and how he missed Madrid.
And you can totally see how somebody would miss being here.
I mean, I'm gonna miss being here when I leave.
I know you're from around Madrid.
Did you ever leave Spain?
-Yes.
I went to study, to Munich, in Germany, for three years.
-Hm.
-And I didn't realize how Spanish I was until I went to Germany and I started missing Madrid a lot.
I just feel this chapter in my life, where I am living here and I'm teaching around Spain and having concerts while living in my favorite city in the world is such a gift.
It's really...
I couldn't ask for anything else in the world.
-Hm.
-Yeah.
-I didn't realize, kind of similar to Cristina, how American I was and what home really meant until I moved abroad.
And that's one of the beauties of living abroad.
You find yourself.
You find who you are and who you want to be.
-I think also, as artists, a lot of the time, we have to take a leap of faith.
And by this point, I have learned that, you know, even if it's scary, the result that comes out of it can be the best thing.
-Yeah.
-I also find, too, that it's the people that make a place and it's the people that make it feel like home or not like home.
I mean, we even joked on the way over here.
There was someone walking with a violin case, and we said, "Oh, it's a friend.
That's our friend.
We haven't met them yet, but that is our friend."
-I say the phrase, "It's such a small world," at least, you know, once a week, when I meet new people.
It's a constant thing.
-Maybe it should be "It's such a big family."
-That's such a good way of thinking of it.
-Oh, that's nice.
I like that.
-I'm gonna start saying that.
That's more beautiful.
[ Laughs ] -Though away from home, Boccherini was still living with his own musical family -- a supportive patron and court musicians to play with and compose for.
-I can imagine being in a castle like this, with so much space and no distractions, can be a perfect space to just be really concentrated in your work.
-Apparently, this was the most productive period of Boccherini's life.
-Yeah.
-I learned this piece as a little kid.
We've all heard this a million times.
Most non-musicians know this piece.
Shall we play it?
-Yeah.
-Who knew that it was a -- I thought it was a string quartet.
It's a cello quintet.
-Yeah.
-And also with mute.
Who knew?
Let's give it a try.
Maybe it was the tranquil environment.
Maybe distance from Madrid gave him focus.
Maybe he just needed a new start.
But in the prince's castles in the mountains, Boccherini began a new epoch in his writing.
Among hundreds of other works, he wrote 12 virtuoso cello concertos, 30 symphonies, and well over 100 of his calling card -- the cello quintet, containing some of his most enduring melodies.
Before we went home, we had one more piece of Night Music to play.
It's kind of fitting that, despite his enormous output across many formats, Boccherini is remembered most for his popular melodies, inspired by the home that he loved.
What I realized in our tour of the Night Music of Madrid is that it's so much the same as it was in Boccherini's time.
There's still a song around nearly every corner.
Folk music is as popular now as it was then, drawing its inspiration from folklore, Latin America, and the wider world.
It's an eclectic universe and magical atmosphere that can only be found at night in the streets of Madrid.
I'm Scott Yoo, and I hope you can Now Hear This.
-This program is available with PBS Passport and on Amazon Prime Video.
To find out more, visit PBS.org/greatperformances.
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