Thursday, October 27, 2011

BOADILLA DEL MONTE


THE WEATHER in Boadilla   


LUIGI BOCCHERINI, THE CELLIST AND COMPOSER

Luigi Boccherini, Italian composer and cellist, came from a family of talented musicians and artists. He was born in Lucca on February 19, 1743, son of a cellist and bass-player. In his teens he was famous as a virtuoso cellist, having debuted at age 13. His father sent him to study in Rome with Maestro di Cappella, who later accompanied him to the Royal court in Vienna where he worked for a while.
At age 23, he made an extensive concert tour, made his mark with a favourable reception mainly in Paris. Three years later, he went to Madrid and settled there, being first in the Spanish Court service of the king Charles III's brother, Luis Antonio.
In 1787, he was appointed court composer to Frederick William II of Prussia although he maintained his residence in Madrid. After the king’s death, Luigi Boccherini returned to Madrid. He organized concerts and composed for Napoleon's brother Lucien Buonaparte.
Unfortunately, Boccherini's last years were spent in increasing poverty, largely owing to inconsiderate treatment by his publishers, by issuing quartets of other composers under his popular name.
An enormously prolific composer, Luigi Boccherini completed
  • chamber music, including over 150 string quintets, nearly 100 string quartets and more than 100 other chamber works.
  • orchestral music including several virtuoso cello concerti, church music, over 20 symphonies.
  • vocal works including operas, oratorios and a Stabat mater.
His famous Minuet comes form his String Quintet in E major, Op.13, No.5, which was featured in the 1955 British film The Ladykillers.


He died in Madrid in 1805, aged 62.


VENTURA RODRIGUEZ, THE ARCHITECT
Ventura Rodríguez Tizón (July 14, 1717 – September 26, 1785) was a Spanish architect and artist. Born at Ciempozuelos, Rodríguez was the son of a bricklayer. In 1727, he collaborated with his father in the work at the Royal Palace of Aranjuez.
Ventura's career was remarkably prolific. Between 1749 and 1753, he built the parish church of San Marcos in Madrid. In 1752, he was named the director of architectural studies a the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando.
In 1750, he was commissioned with finishing and remodeling the basílica del Pilar of Zaragoza.  In the cathedral of Cuenca, Ventura was asked to construct a Transparente(a glass-roofed altar complex) similar to that made by Narciso Tomé in the Cathedral of Toledo.
Between 1755 and 1767, he decorated the interior of the church of the Royal Monastery of la Encarnación, in Madrid. Then at his peak of influence, the Bourbon monarchs of Spain, Fernando VI and Carlos III began to favor foreign architects such as the Neapolitan Francesco Sabatini.
He aided in the design of the Convent of the Philippine Augustines of Valladolid, the college of surgery in Barcelona (1761, home today of the academy of Medicine), the town hall of Haro (1769), and his projects for a new National library and the factory of glass at La Granja.
Palacio del Infante don Luís en Boadilla del Monte
He helped design the Palacio de Liria (1770) ; Palacio de Altamira (1773–1775) (now the European Institute of Design; the Palacio de Boadilla del Monte; the Palacio de Almanzora; and the Palace at Arenas de San Pedro (he also built the Royal Chapel for the Convent/Sancturary of San Pedro de Alcántara). He helped remodel the Palacio Municipal de Betanzos.
He was named Maestro Mayor del Ayuntamiento of Madrid in 1764. Among other works are portions of the plaza Mayor de Ávila, the Hospital General de Madrid, the facade of the cathedral of Toledo, the Sagrario (1761–1764) of the Cathedral of Jaén, the main retablo for Cathedral of Zamora (1765–1776), which replaced the one by Joaquín Benito Churriguera, that had been damaged by the Lisbon earthquake of 1755,  He designed the facade of the cathedral of Pamplona in Neoclassic style. He created the present church at the Monastery of Santo Domingo de Silos; for this project, he almost destroyed all traces of earlier Romanesque constructions.
He was unable to complete two important commissions, the Puerta de Alcalá (finished by Sabatini en 1764) or the Basilica of San Francisco el Grande in Madrid (Sabatini again in 1768).
He died at Madrid.

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