Program Notes

Luigi Cherubini (1760-1842)

Overture in G (1815)

"some maintain his temper was very even, because he was always angry".

First impressions can be a dangerous thing. The above quote was made by the composer Adolphe Adam, which seems to confirm a long-standing assumption about Luigi Cherubini. Instances of his irritability were widespread, and Hector Berlioz even went so far as to trash Cherubini in his memoirs. These outbursts of temper can hardly be denied, but they certainly don’t give us a true picture of the man.

Cherubini was friend to Chopin and Rossini, and his music was greatly admired by contemporaries such as Weber, Spohr and Beethoven, who considered him the greatest living operatic master. In fact, if pressed, Berlioz would have to admit a great respect for Cherubini’s work. Today he is well-known by music historians, but except for a few overtures, his music has all but disappeared from the concert halls and opera houses of the world.

The reason for this neglect is a familiar one. Cherubini wrote wonderful works in the style of opera seria and opera buffa, and also wrote numerous pieces of choral church music. But, like many composers of the Classical and early Romantic eras, his music was deemed by future generations to be old-fashioned and out of step. The sheer number of Classical era composers who suffered this fate could fill an encyclopedia. It is safe to say that most of them deserve their reputations, but in the wake of the overpowering genius of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, it may also be fair to re-evaluate some of them. Cherubini would certainly be a good candidate. His operas were praised in his day for their imagination, beauty and realism, and his understanding of his craft was profound. The greatest testimony to his abilities, though, remains the respect given him by his students, in spite of being the convenient targets of his wrath.

One of the Cherubini works that still gets a hearing now and then is the Concert Overture in G, written in 1815 for the London Philharmonic Society. The overture is a perfect curtain-raiser. Closely following the conventions of classical form and style, it skillfully balances serene charm and expertly crafted dramatic utterance.