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After being awarded in the renowned Sitges music competition and achieving great success in their last Balearic Islands tour, La Ritirata has premiered in the Fringe Festival of Early Music in Utrecht and finalized the their last CD recording of Boccherini cello sonatas in the palace of Arenas de San Pedro where the composer spent the last years of his life. Ritirata's members are looking forward to their next confirmed projects including XI Festival Internacional de Música de Jaca and Musika-Música 2009 (Palacio Euskalduna, Bilbao).

In the words of a recently published press review on Diario de Menorca, the mastery of its instrumentalists delighted the audience with exquisite sonority, great agility, example of technical control and perfection of the German baroque music [Arcadio Gomila]

La Ritirata owes its name to the celebrated quintet that was composed by Luigi Boccherini in Madrid entitled La ritirata notturna di Madrid (the nocturnal retreat from Madrid). It was created by the Spanish baroque cellist Josetxu Obregón while living in The Netherlands with the goal of finding its place between the leading ensembles in the early performance field.

Regarding Josetxu Obregón, artistic director, the critic has said: the cello exhibited his huge tessitura with a clear sound, powerful and deep, with a fluid and elastic left hand technique, moving from the lower to the higher positions. Likewise, he showed an effective bow technique, with almost imperceptible changes, decisive attacks and remarkable equilibrium in the sound from the tip to the frog, producing from silk to thunder-like passages. Josetxu Obregón, real protagonist of the concert, played on an instrument of valuable sonority [Luis Alfonso Bes]

As its name suggest, the music of Luigi Boccherini and the spreading of unknown Spanish repertory is one of the interests of La Ritirata, but the variety of music they actually perform is much wider, always with an innovative spirit and a scholars mentality.

Like any other historically informed ensemble, the instrumentation and number of members of La Ritirata might change with every project following the necessities and style of the music to be performed.