Boccherini: Guitar Quintet No. 3 in B-flat Major, G 447

Description

The Quintets nos. 1-7, 9 and the 12 Variazioni sulla Ritirata di Madrid, for guitar and string quartet, are not listed in Boccherini's autograph catalogues, nor in the Catalogo Boccherini y Calonje, nor in the Catalogue Baillot. However they are mentioned in the Catalogue Picquot, and they have come down to us through three non-autograph manuscripts and three unauthorized printed editions of the early twentieth century. The documentary evidence establishes their authorship, their dating and the relevant musical source, as the single movements for the most part are transcriptions of compositions for other instrumental settings. The primary source of the Quintets 1-6 is ms. Wc, Washington (DC), Library of Congress, Ms. M. 574. B Case, olim M. 572. B65 Case [RISM A/II: deest]. Written in Madrid in 1811 by François de Fossa, it derives from a copy prepared by Boccherini for the commissioner of the pieces, Francisco Borja de Riquer y de Ros, marquis of Benavent, an amateur guitarist and patron of Boccherini from 1796.