DORIS BATES and DOROTHY JOHN (Violins)
HAROLD LOWE (Viola)
JOHN SOWERBY and MARJORIE BROWN (Violoncellos)
GEORGE SIMPSON (Clarinet) J. H. CHAMBERS (Baritone)

BOCCHERINI, in his own day in the very front rank of violoncello players, was also a composer of immense industry. It used to be said of him that he was a fountain of which it was only necessary to turn on the tap to produce a stream of music. He left no fewer than 467 instrumental works. including twenty symphonies. all of them marked by simple natural melodiousness, and by a dignified and courtly style. He and Haydn had a great mutual regard, and the relation of Boccherini's music to that of the more famous master was characterized in the saying that 'Boccherini was the wife of Haydn.'
It is sad to have to record that his last years were spent in something very like penury and distress. It was an age when royal or noble patronage was almost necessary if a musician was to flourish, and though at one time Boccherini might truly call himself a friend of princes, he realized in his latter years that one may not always count on friendships such as theirs enduring.