Description
Puccini (1858-1924) wrote his Three Minuets (Tre Minuetti) for string quartet in the early 1890s, at around the same time as he was writing what was to become his first operatic great success, Manon Lescaut. Indeed, the minuets and Manon share thematic material: parts of the first and third minuets are used in Act II, whilst the first theme of the second minuet appears in the opera’s orchestral introduction.
The Three Minuets are all beautifully lyrical. Music critics of the time declared that the work was ‘full of good taste and refinement, … marked by that elegance and fluency that makes his music so agreeable.’ Each minuet is dedicated to figures in Puccini’s life, all eminent citizens of Lucca, his home city. Indeed, it may be that in writing a set of minuets Puccini was also paying homage to the city’s most illustrious son, Luigi Boccherini, whose own Menuet (from the Quintet in A) is still so well known (also available for wind quartet here).
