La Ritirata
Founded by Josetxu Obregón when he was based in The Netherlands, the ensemble La Ritirata takes its name from the final movement of the famous quintet composed by Luigi Boccherini in Spain, entitled “La musica notturna delle strade di Madrid”.
Any musical vision can potentially be valid, but when the instruments used and the way they are played correspond to the composer’s lived experience in their own time, the pieces of the puzzle somehow fall into place, creating an undeniable synergy. Based on this principle, the Bilbao-born cellist Josetxu Obregón founded La Ritirata, an ensemble devoted to historically informed performance, with the aim of rediscovering repertoire from the Baroque, Classical, and early Romantic periods—from the emergence of the cello to the moment when the distinction between historical and modern performance of the instrument began to blur at the end of the Romantic era. La Ritirata takes its name from the final movement of the quintet La Musica Notturna delle strade di Madrid, in homage to the cellist and composer Luigi Boccherini.
Throughout its 18-year trajectory, the ensemble has performed in prestigious festivals and venues across Europe, the Americas, Asia, and the Middle East, including Musikfestspiele Potsdam, Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele, the International Fasch Festival in Zerbst, Kulturforum Berlin, Tage Alter Musik Regensburg (Germany), International Barocktage Stift Melk and Alte Musik Feldkirchen (Austria), Eszterházi Vigasságok (Hungary), Banchetto Musicale Vilnius (Lithuania), Varaždin Baroque Evenings (Croatia), the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing (China), Felicja Blumental Music Center in Tel Aviv (Israel), Centro Studi Boccherini in Lucca (Italy), Sligo Festival of Baroque Music (Ireland), Valletta International Baroque Festival (Malta), as well as numerous tours in the Americas, including Mexico, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador. In Spain, they are regular guests at major festivals and venues such as Universo Barroco and Liceo de Cámara (CNDM) at Madrid’s National Auditorium of Music, Musika-Música/La Folle Journée at the Euskalduna Palace in Bilbao, the Barcelona Early Music Festival at L’Auditori, the Granada International Festival of Music and Dance, Fundación Botín, and the Santander International Festival, among others.
Supported by INAEM since 2011, La Ritirata has released several recordings with labels such as Verso, Arsis, Columna Música, and Cantus, and since 2013 they have been artists of the Glossa label, one of the most prominent in the field of early music today. Their recordings have received widespread critical acclaim in major European publications, earning distinctions such as “Recommended CD” from CD Compact, “Exceptional Album of the Month” from Scherzo, “Especially Recommended” from Ritmo, “Melómano de Oro,” “Supersonic Pizzicato” (Luxembourg), “4 étoiles” in Classica (France), and outstanding reviews in Toccata and Fono Forum (Germany), Gramophone and BBC Music Magazine (UK), Diapason (France), among others.
In March 2018, La Ritirata was awarded the 2017 Culture Prize of the Community of Madrid in the category of Classical Music, recognizing the research and dissemination work in early music carried out by Josetxu Obregón during that decade. The ensemble has also received the 2013 “Ojo Crítico” Award from Spanish National Radio (RNE) in the Classical Music category—the first time in its history that this award was granted to an early music group—the Codalario Award for “Best Musical Product 2014,” and has won five GEMA Awards (Association of Spanish Early Music Groups): Best Classical Period Ensemble (2015), Critics’ Choice Award (2018), Audience Award for Best Ensemble (2019), Best Baroque (18th Century) and Classical Ensemble (2019), and Best Production/Management (2020).
In 2025, marking the 300th anniversary of Alessandro Scarlatti’s death, La Ritirata released its 16th CD: the world premiere recording of the oratorio Alessandro Scarlatti: Il Giardino di Rose, for the label Deutsche Harmonia Mundi / SONY CLASSICS, featuring Nuria Rial, Alicia Amo, Luciana Mancini, Víctor Sordo, and José Coca Loza. The release coincided with concert performances at the Sociedad Filarmónica de Bilbao in February and at the Madrid International Sacred Art Festival in March (in a reduced version for two sopranos, Nuria Rial and Alicia Amo), as well as at the Tatiana Foundation in Cáceres in September (reduced version for soprano and mezzo-soprano, Alicia Amo and Luciana Mancini). The ensemble also presented three additional concerts dedicated to Scarlatti with soprano Lucía Martín Cartón at the Liria Palace.
They also performed numerous concerts of their previous CD, Fandango: Boccherini String Quintets, in Málaga, Cádiz, Valladolid, the Festival de Música Antiga dels Pirineus, and the Great Performers Series at the Autonomous University of Madrid. In October, they devoted two more concerts to Boccherini, performing his Stabat Mater with Nuria Rial at the Sociedad Filarmónica de Tenerife and at the Juan March Foundation in Madrid. Throughout 2025, they also toured their new program Amor Místico with mezzo-soprano Beatriz Oleaga and actress Manuela Velasco, appearing at the Bilbao Sacred Art Festival, Almería, the Almagro International Classical Theatre Festival, the San Sebastián Musical Fortnight, and the Camino de Santiago International Festival. In August, they presented the semi-staged opera Scipione in Spain (modern premiere) by Alessandro Scarlatti at the San Lorenzo de El Escorial Festival.
In the first months of 2026, the ensemble will perform at the Arriaga Theatre in Bilbao (Arriaga and the Echo of His Time), CaixaForum Valencia (Il Spiritillo Brando), Espacio Turina in Seville (Charpentier: Les arts florissants), Fundación BBVA (Boccherini: Fandango), Narodowe Forum Muzyki in Wrocław (Arriaga & Boccherini), CaixaForum Zaragoza (Il Spiritillo Brando), and will give two performances of J.S. Bach’s St John Passion in El Escorial and Madrid (International Sacred Art Festival). In the summer of 2026, they are scheduled to appear at the Peñíscola Early Music Festival and the Santander International Festival (Amor Místico with Manuela Velasco and Beatriz Oleaga), the San Sebastián Musical Fortnight (Arriaga & Boccherini), and the Bal y Gay Festival (Boccherini Fandango).
