If I Could Choose Only One Work By...CHERUBINI

[@geraldparker8125]

Yes, I think that you, indeed, did make the right choice. When, as a teemager. I discovered "Médée" (in the Italian form as "Medea") I was absolutely stunned. I still am every time that I hear a really colossally great dramatic soprano take on the title role (e.g., Callas, Farrell, Borkh, Jones, Oliveiro, Gencer, Rysanek, and there are other), I encounter one of the greatest expressions of rage and betrayal, and vengeance in all of Western art. And there is great music in this work for some of the other characters in it, too. Then, when I encountered the C MInor Requiem, I KNEW, despite what any other "expert" or other person said, that Cherubini was one of the titans in the history of music. By the way, Cherubini was one of the pioneers in orchestration, as well. His music is superbly orchestrated. He had tremendous influence upon other composers. Brahms insisted, from an account that I read years ago, upon being buried with a copy of the score of "Médée" lying upon the chest of his corpse, having considered it the greatest opera ever composed. Cherubini was by no means neglected in his time and for many decades afterwards and he finally is coming back into his own. Thanks so much for this broadcast!

[@dennischiapello7243]

You've got to love Brahms for that story of being buried with the score of Médée. (And for not attempting an opera of his own!)

[@geraldparker8125]

Well, if one's ideal for opera is the example of Luigi Cherubini's great scores, it would be a daunting prospect to strive to write in that form on such a level. "Lodoiska" is another serious opera that is of such tremendous stature also, and, whatever one thinks of its libretto, "Anacréon" outdoes Mozart and Bellini in elegance and delicate shades of beauty and melodious charm.@@dennischiapello7243

[@petrut.1224]

About the Requiem in C minor, I love the performance by Christoph Spering conducting Das Neue Orchester and Chorus Music, it also includes the final little gem "In Paradisum".

[@folanpaul]

I love his string quartets.

[@geraldparker8125]

Those quartets are endlessly charming and inventive. They are so full of all kinds of dance rhythms that their rhythmic vitality overwhelms the litener with delight. Cherubini's scherzi also are as great and sprightly as any by Beetthoven and Mendelssohn.

[@davidecarlassara8525]

I really like Cherubini

[@geraldparker8125]

Yeah, there is so, so much to like in Cherubini's music and incredible variety!

[@jeffpatterson1722]

I just happened to stumble upon listening to a few movements Cherubini's C Minor a few days ago and so it's cool to hear your thoughts on this work and the composer as well. WOOOW was I in luck 'discovering' this composer! The first one was his rendition of the Sanctus and *insert colorful beyond belief swear words* it's a wonder my speakers didn't explode! Amazing work as I had not listened to much of him before. Btw, the version of the Requiem I listened to was conducted by Riccardo Muti, sung by the Ambrosian Singers. Take care and love your vids! :)

[@Bobbnoxious]

As a med student in his early 20s Berlioz used his free time to study scores at the Paris Conservatory Library. Cherubini tried to kick him out because he wasn't enrolled there, and he never forgot it. After Cherubini's death Berlioz became Chief Librarian of the Conservatory. He showed the old man.

[@loiccery1419]

On the subject of Cherubini's ban on the young Berlioz frequenting the Conservatoire library, I'd advise everyone to read Berlioz's "Memoirs", in which he recounts an irresistible scene worthy of Monty Python: one day, when Cherubini saw Hector Berlioz entering the Conservatoire from his office and heading for the library, he ran after him. Inside the library, the chase continued, with Berlioz running faster than Cherubini from one large reading table to the next, and the Conservatoire director running out of steam after him, shouting insults half in French and half in Italian. You really have to have read this, it's unbelievable.

[@Bobbnoxious]

@@loiccery1419 Absolutely. Berlioz was as gifted with words as with music. He settled so many personal scores in the "Memoirs" he decided to have it released posthumously. The entire first edition was printed and bound and the copies stored in his office at the Conservatory Library until his death. Oh, and "Evenings with the Orchestra", which he culled from his best journalism, is still an entertaining read.

[@geraldparker8125]

Cherubini hand-copied many full scores of then-rare choral and other music of the composers who preceded himself and Giuseppe Sarti (who was Cherubini's principal composition teacher). Cherubini dud not just drift along on then-current tides of taste and fasion. He penetrated to the great core of the developing classical tradition. Those copy manuscripts form part of the core of the Conservatoire's library. Did Berlioz give of himself to such a degree? I rather doubt it.

[@geraldparker8125]

By the way, I love Berlioz' music. However, Berlioz had a whimsical and self-centred personality that was bound to clash with that of someone of Cherubini's ideals.

[@DavidJohnson-of3vh]

I never listened to a lot of Cherubini, but I greatly enjoy what I have heard. I did not know some folks did not like him! I'll pay more attention to him.

[@loganfruchtman953]

Cherubini is very underrated classical era composer. His music was also endorsed by Napoleon as well.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Now there's a recommendation!

[@loganfruchtman953]

@@DavesClassicalGuide did you do Carl Maria von Weber yet?

[@bbailey7818]

When Toscanini did the c minor Requiem, he prefaced it with the Medea overture which strikes me as a perfect hour of music. He also did an incredible fun performance of the rollicking Ali Baba overture which proves Cherubini actually had a sense of humor.

[@geraldparker8125]

Cherubini actually wrote a lot of music to comic effect. Rossini, who dwelt with Cherubini for some time upon arriving in Paris, learned much from his great host, such as the so-called "Rossinian crescendo", which Cherubini devised and used to wonderful effect in his own comic operas.

[@JoMichael-ik3wy]

"Getting to the end of the list..." oh no! There's plenty more to go! I'm surprised that we haven't yet had Weber. And there's still Donizetti, Massenet, Gounod et al. to look forward to.

[@ericleiter6179]

Yes, it can't be near the end...what about John Adams, Morton Feldman, and Heitor Villa Lobos to name just 3 more?!?!?!

[@Bobbnoxious]

Dave said he was kidding, thank heavens. As the avatar might suggest I'm rather keenly waiting for Satie.

[@AlanDaNiao]

I've hunted out Cherubini for decades after, like others on this thread, being bowled over by Callas's Medea. I've just come across a Chant sur le mort de Joseph Haydn (recorded by Nicholas McGegan along with some Handel) which is worth listening to. But if you're interested in more Cherubini there is an improvisatory piano piece which is utterly astonishing, and decades ahead of its time. I first heard it on Radio 3 when it was presented by the late great Fritz Spiegl, who raved about it. It's his Capriccio ou Etude pour le fortepiano. The recording I have is by Pietro Spada, on Koch Europa (along with the piano sonatas and a fantasy), but it was also in Cortot's repertoire. It was written in 1789, and Spada links it in form and style to Beethoven's late quartets and piano sonatas. I maybe wouldn't go quite that far, but it's a piece well worth a listen. It lasts a full 37 minutes.

[@CortJohnson]

Love the history 😎

[@leestamm3187]

Probably the best choice for preservation, but for purely listening purposes I enjoy his piano sonatas.

[@geraldparker8125]

Interesting choice. Those sonatas (closer to what we think of as sonatinas) come from CHerubini's youth, still rather rococo in style and mood, and a lot of fun to hear, even if he would develop into a composer of much greater depth and worth as the years advanced. Sir Thomas Zajkowski made an edition of another early sonata, for two organs, which sounds wonderfully zippy and festive for two pianos as Zajkowski edited it. I love them, too, for their Scarlattian charm and sweet innocence. The recording by Zajkowski and Glenn Carruthers is an utter delight. The set of six piano (or harpsichord) sonatas constituted Cherubini's first publication during his lifetime. The third sonata of the set persisted in pianists' repertory longest, but all six are endearing and lovable.

[@thebiblepriest4950]

I attended the opening night of the Rome Opera in November 1985, a star-studded production of Cherubini's unknown Demophon, in the French. How star-studded? Giorgio Taddei and Montserrat Caballé were in it. How unknown? No discography at all, then or since! I have been waiting more than half my life for such a recording to be released. I suppose I must face reality and abandon any remaining hopes.

[@geraldparker8125]

There has long been a recording of "Démophon" on the a LP label, well done, too. The two editions of "Démophon" that I know of are, admittedly, on quite obscure record labels. Keep searching; you will find it if you try hard enough. "Démophon" was Cherubini's first opera for Paris and it is a transitional work, with elements of Gluck's reforms and of opera seria mixed together. It has some wonderful music in it, however!

[@thebiblepriest4950]

@@geraldparker8125 Am glad that you know the work. The Rome premiere has been available on murky video, and an unprofessional but adequate audio capture on LP from a performance a few days later. I have been making do with them while hoping for better. I thought I saw a studio CD version in a Ricordi shop in Rome soon after, but can't be sure at this point nearly forty years later. A curtain came down during a scene change and nearly hit Montserrat Caballé on the top of the head in a subsequent performance. She didn't see it coming but the rest of us did, and we sighed a collective sigh of relief.

[@geraldparker8125]

I have these items in my personal collection. @@thebiblepriest4950

[@geraldparker8125]

It is nice having the LP set and the DVD, but, wow! with a cast like that, especially, I sure wish that I could have been there in the audience! @@thebiblepriest4950

[@geraldparker8125]

Of early Callas recordings of "Medea" on recordings, the one conducted by Gui is the most impressive. Fortunately, Immortal Performances (the chartered outfit with record label in the wilds of British Columbia) has done an incredible, immaculate job of restoration. One can hear Callas at her earliest and best as Medea, with much work done to enhance the sound to high standard. One has to hear that edition to believe the sonic transformation that Richard Caniell and his aids have accomplished. @@thebiblepriest4950

[@taraznzoro]

Could you choose a work by Cage?

[@loganfruchtman953]

4:33 cuz I can play it

[@Bobbnoxious]

How about Charles T. Griffes? He died young and was still feeling his way towards a mature style. "The Pleasure Dome of Kubla Khan" epitomizes his Impressionist phase and his Piano Sonata points to what might have been.

[@tenorette2003]

Noooooooooo!!!!! As an opera cookie it has certainly to be Medea!!!!!