Arias without Words

Luigi Boccherini was a brilliant cellist. His playing was like singing. Even his sonatas breathe with aria-like sensitivity. Baroque cellist Dmitri Dichtiar, who teaches at the Karlsruhe University of Music, emphasizes the theatricality of this music by envisioning operas without singers or ballets without dancers. The result is an invitation to listeners to immerse themselves fully in these cello works. The performers also act as narrators, guiding the audience through the different stages of the composers’ lives.

What did the 18th century sound like in Bologna, Venice, Hamburg, Amsterdam, London and Vienna? A musical and stylistic journey from the earliest “string storms” for solo cello to the refined elegance of the classical repertoire.