05. - 08. Luigi Boccherini - Cello Quintet No.7 in C major, op.37 no.1 [19'39]
Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields
(Hugh Maguire, Neville Marriner, Iona Brown & Trevor Connah- violins, Stephen Shingles & Kenneth Essex- violas, Kenneth Heath & Denis Vigay- cellos)
Decca Weekend 4216372 (recorded 1968; this CD issued 1989)
(flac and scans [such as they are])
Recording venue, engineer and producer: Not disclosed
Here's another "bare-bones" release in Decca's early budget Weekend series. Posted here at the request of a MIMIC reader, there are no production details nor sleeve notes at all - not even listing who the players are in the Boccherini. The original recording for Argo - released on LP in 1968 with the last movement of the Octet relegated to side 2 - has subsequently turned up on at least two other CD releases; for Decca Originals and Decca Eloquence in Australia. The re-releases probably provide decent sleeve notes and are 24 bit remasters but the sound on this release is fine to my ears.
These were considered outstanding recordings in their day and came as a breath of fresh air. The recording was made in the earlier days of the Academy when most of the players were still, or recently had been, prominent players in the London Symphony Orchestra with concertmaster Hugh Maguire and principal second violin, Neville Marriner. If you don't have an intolerance of their modern instruments and ebullient performance style, they probably haven't been subsequently bettered.