Classical Music

Classical Music

In the post-war gramophone record era, the great conductor Arturo Toscanini was the first to record the work on February 19, 1950. Carlo Maria Giulini followed him only two years later and conducted Cherubini's Requiem in C Minor in his first studio recording. It is that which is presented on CD here for the first time.

Classical Music

Capriccio Encore is a series of re-releases of the most famous recordings from Capriccio’s back catalogue, fully re-mastered and competitively priced. The legendary recordings of artists such as Sandor Végh, Ton Koopman, Sir Neville Marriner and the Vienna Boys’ Choir also contain repertoire highlights that have a particularly special appeal, from the baroque to the present day. This Encore release's highlight is Luigi Cherubini's Coronation Mass Krönungsmesse, performed by Kölner Rundfunkchor and Capella Coloniensis.

Cherubini: Ali-Baba, ou Les quarante voleurs (1963)

The audience of the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival experienced a great musical event when the Kammerchor Stuttgart, conducted by its founder Frieder Bernius, performed Luigi Cherubini's Messe Solennelle No. 2 in D minor. The soloists of the evening were Ruth Ziesak, soprano, Christa Mayer, contralto, Christoph Genz, tenor, and Thomas E. Bauer, bass. The recording of this truly extraordinary work is now available on album. After a beginning which seems familiar, unforeseen, imaginative and witty turns lead melodic progressions and harmonic developments into entirely new directions. The harmonic variety is impressive, and chromaticism plays no less important a role. Subtle instrumentation lends many sections an exquisite sonority. And last but not least, the deeply felt interpretation of the text by means of melodic, rhythmic or harmonic figures, as well as by dynamics and tempo is one of the outstanding features of the work, highlighting the performers' brilliance.

The Italian composer Luigi Cherubini (1760-1842) isn’t much remembered today, though a not inconsiderable number of recordings are making known his instrumental, vocal and, most significantly, his operatic works that, historically, carry the most weight and are his most significant contribution to music. Long before re-discovery however, came this 1960 Elisa, a two-act opéra comique that had its premiere in Paris in 1794, a time of much turmoil in that city. An all-Italian cast, conductor, orchestra and locale feature here, with Gabriela Tucci and Gianni Raimondi assuming the lead roles.

Classical Music

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Also available on standard DVD

Three years after the creation of Médée, Krzysztof Warlikowski and Christophe Rousset were together again at La Monnaie for the revival of one memorable production whose staging reinforces the violence, tension and cruelty of this tragedy.

Whilst this work by Cherubini is considered part of the 'opéra-comique' genre, it is only due to the presence of spoken dialogue, which has been modernised here in the Polish stage director's interpretation.

Written in 1797, Cherubini's faithful version of Euripides' ancient tragedy is one of the most savage and powerful works of the opera repertoire, relating the cruel vengeance of a wounded woman for whom infanticide seems to be the only solution to her humiliation in love. As a continuation of Gluck's music, Cherubini's work is of boundless emotion, at once a refined, terrifying and desperate portent of a tragic outcome.

The cast : Nadja Michael as Médée, Kurt Streit as Jason, Christianne Stotijn as Néris Médée’s slave, Vincent Le Texier as King Créon and Hendrickje Van Kerckhove as Dircé Créon’s daughter. Christophe Rousset is conducted Les Talens Lyriques and the Chœurs de la Monnaie.

Director: Stéphane Metge
Length: 138 min - Image: Color, 16/9, NTSC
Audio: PCM Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles: French / English / German / Dutch

The opera Faniska, which premiered at the K�rntnertor Theatre in Vienna in 1806, is said to have been enthusiastically received by both Haydn and Beethoven. The libretto is available in German and Italian, and is based on the melodrama Les Mines de Pologne by the Nancy-born French playwright Ren� Charles Guilbert de Pix�r�court. The action takes place in Poland, from where the first recording of the opera also comes. Zamoski, the Baron of Sandomir, orders his henchman Oranski to kidnap Faniska, the wife of the Baron of Rava, Rasinski. Faniska is taken to Zamoski's castle. Various attempts to free her fail. After being imprisoned with her husband, the couple finally manage to escape with Rasno's help. Rasinski's soldiers attack the castle, Zamoski is killed, Oranski is captured and put on trial. Faniska is sometimes called an op�ra comique, but more often (and more accurately) an opera in three acts or even a 'grand heroic opera'. Like Lodo�ska, Faniska is a typical example of the 'rescue opera' genre. Cherubini invested all his melodic talent in this work. Compared to Lodo�ska his talent has clearly gained in quality. Natalia Rubis sings the technically difficult title role very sensitively and with a beautifully led but somewhat tight voice. Krystian Adam remains all too pale as her husband Rasinski. In the role of Rasno Piotr Kalna's singing is rather strained. The supporting roles are more or less well cast. With only one really good voice, that of bass-baritone Robert Gierlach as Zamoski, the vocal side is somewhat weak. On the other hand, Lukasz Borowicz is all the more impressive as the conductor. He puts a lot of lightness and transparency into the orchestral part, which he controls admirably, enlivening it with many details. Because Cherubini's score is so imaginative and so closely connected to the drama, this counts for a lot.

Also available on Blu-ray

Three years after the creation of Médée, Krzysztof Warlikowski and Christophe Rousset were together again at La Monnaie for the revival of one memorable production whose staging reinforces the violence, tension and cruelty of this tragedy.

Whilst this work by Cherubini is considered part of the 'opéra-comique' genre, it is only due to the presence of spoken dialogue, which has been modernised here in the Polish stage director's interpretation.

Written in 1797, Cherubini's faithful version of Euripides' ancient tragedy is one of the most savage and powerful works of the opera repertoire, relating the cruel vengeance of a wounded woman for whom infanticide seems to be the only solution to her humiliation in love. As a continuation of Gluck's music, Cherubini's work is of boundless emotion, at once a refined, terrifying and desperate portent of a tragic outcome.

The cast : Nadja Michael as Médée, Kurt Streit as Jason, Christianne Stotijn as Néris Médée’s slave, Vincent Le Texier as King Créon and Hendrickje Van Kerckhove as Dircé Créon’s daughter. Christophe Rousset is conducted Les Talens Lyriques and the Chœurs de la Monnaie.

Director: Stéphane Metge
Length: 138 min - Image: Color, 16/9, NTSC
Audio: PCM Stereo, DTS HD Master Audio 5.1
Subtitles: French / English / German / Dutch
No. of Discs: 2

Luigi Cherubini is one of the most interesting artistic personalities in a historical period of great changes that straddled two centuries, the eighteenth and the nineteenth. His musical career met the best possible conditions in a city, Florence, that was extremely rich in culture and dotted with important events, ranging from the performance of Handel's Messiah in Italian and the staging of operas by Hasse, Gluck, Paisiello, Piccinni, Rutini and Traetta, to Mozart's performance in 1770. The Luigi Cherubini sonatas performed by Chiara Cattani in this recording can be defined as 'galant' without depleting their meaning as compared to the great compositions of the previous period. The eighteenth century is a very prolific century for the cembalistic literature, particularly for the Sonata form, affected by various influences and changes that will bring it to it's apogee in the period of the Classicism. The taste of the Italian society goes through a profound mutation: it is now more pleasing with melodic expansion, clarity, transparency and lightness, characteristics that permeate the art of this century at 360 degrees. Simplicity and proportion are the pillars of the structure and together favor the emanation of a sense of vividness and fervor that makes writing energetic and never obvious.

Giovanni Battista Viotti was a man of humble origins who studied with Gaetano Pugnani in the tradition of the Corelli school. By the age of 20 he was already an esteemed violinist, performing concerts in Geneva, Bern, Berlin and Saint Petersburg, and he eventually chose to settle in Paris. However, as a court musician for Marie Antoniette, he was forced to flee to London in 1792, where, a short while later, he was accused of spying on behalf of the Jacobins. He returned to Paris and was celebrated during the Restoration period, but eventually came back to London, where he died in poverty. Compositionally he serves as a bridge between the Classical period and the first signs of Romanticism, and he wrote an impressive 29 concertos for his own instrument, the violin. The 22nd, in A minor, shows his renowned compositional intelligence at it's peak. Brahms, by no means known for the generosity of his opinions, wrote in a letter to Clara Schumann: "This concerto... is a magnificent piece, of remarkable freedom in it's invention; it sounds as if [Viotti] were fantasising, and everything is masterfully conceived and executed". The work is divided into three movements: the first of these, an Allegro moderato, abandons the tradition of an energetic and virtuosic opening, and instead introduces a meditative, highly refined atmosphere. The cantabile violin theme soon evolves into a flourish that pre-empts the subsequent bright and complex dramatic beauty of the cadenza. Only the third movement, Agitato assai, is Classical in it's inspiration, featuring a nimble dialogue between soloist and orchestra, albeit with strong contrapuntal hints, while the vibrant central Adagio's echoes of Mozart are pulled in the direction of pre-Romantic angst. Luigi Maria Cherubini, perhaps best known today for his monumental Requiem, like Viotti suffered the consequences of being culturally close to an overthrown ancien r�gime, in his case that of Napoleon. The arrival of King Louis XVIII gave him respite, and indeed he became one of France's greatest musicians, despite his Italian origins. His Symphony in D major's four movements convey that "dual compositional nationality" right from the initial Moderato, straying at times into pomposity but with plenty of moments of progressive expressive intimacy. Cherubini was admired by Haydn, and even by the moody Beethoven, who appreciated the "dramaticism" of his work. The coupling on this album reflects a real-life acquaintance: Cherubini directed a theatre in Paris with Viotti for a period. The two were also both initiated into French masonic orders, joining the ranks of many other freemason musicians from Haydn and Mozart to Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong. Both men were significant figures in the history of music, producing a wealth of content and materials yet to be fully explored.

In the second half of 18th century, keyboard music in Tuscany was flourishing. Many composers wrote music for both the fortepiano and the harpsichord: the former, which was invented just before the turn of the 18th century in Florence by harpsichord maker Bartolomeo Cristofori (1655–1731), rose to an incredible degree of popularity in the last decades of the century at the expense of the latter, which experienced the last moments of its glorious history. At any rate, it was by no means uncommon that composers published music intended to be played on either instrument, as almost all keyboard pieces written in Tuscany during the 1780s were explicitly addressed per il clavicembalo o fortepiano (for the harpsichord or piano).

The Florence-born composer Luigi Cherubini (1760–1842) published his Sei Sonate per il Cimbalo around 1780; they are currently believed to be the first published work by the composer, although he had written operas and religious music prior to the publication of this work. The style of these sonatas is not too far from the musical fashion of the time: they all consist of two movements, the first in sonata-form, the second a rondò where the second theme is typically characterized by highly virtuosic writing. All six sonatas follow this strict formal code, however, Cherubini manages to create a surprising variety in the themes and their development. Each sonata could, in fact, depict a different stock character from the commedia dell’Arte, with their strict formal codification employed in a theatrical way thanks to the perfect balance of ideas set out each time. Even the bass seems to be adjusted depending on the mood of the theme – Cherubini employs Murky bass, Alberti bass and even counterpoint. The harmonic closeness between the key signatures of each sonata gives further cohesion to the whole set.

After careful consideration, Simone El Oufir Pierini found the fortepiano to be the best instrument to play these works on, although in the printed edition it was explicitly said that they should be played on the harpsichord. The piano, a new instrument, was highly favoured by the new Tuscan court, and the potential of this new instrument was sought out with keen interest by composers. The employment of the fortepiano for these sonatas hopefully sheds new light on these pieces, written by one of the most influential composers of the time.

Cherubini’s Les Abencérages, premiered in 1813, heralds the spectacle and extravagance of Romantic grand opera. From the Alhambra gardens to the battlefield, the action skillfully intertwines political conspiracies with a love story. Underpinned by the energy and timbres of period instruments, this recording demonstrates the work’s modernity and its musical qualities. Anaïs Constans valiantly tackles the demanding role of Noraïme, while Edgaras Montvidas displays his lyric tenor voice in a series of sublime airs whose beauty was already hinted at by none other than Roberto Alagna in a recital disc released in 2003. Around this couple, a plethoric cast of soloists (Dolié, Sargsyan, Williams, Martin, Lavoie, etc.) achieves the same high standards of French diction and style. The Hungarian conductor György Vashegyi, flanked by the Purcell Choir and Orfeo Orchestra, reveals here another key milestone of French Romantic opera.

REVIEWS:

Unstaged in Paris for over two centuries Les Abencérages, a kind of ‘missing link’ in the history of French opera, has been disinterred by Bru Zane. The overture with its two warring themes – romantic passion versus battlefield chivalry – announce a changed sensibility where the political is properly personal.

György Vashegyi and the Orfeo Orchestra find Beethoven – drums and trumpets and driving rhythms – in Cherubini’s score, and hints at the start of Act III of the Romanticism to come with Mendelssohn. While Étienne de Jouy’s libretto is set in the exotic Alhambra of late-15th century Moorish Grenada, its spectacle and masterly use of the chorus suggests the coming French Grand Opéra. Its story presents two warring factions within the last Spanish caliphate ready to be reconciled through the warrior Almazor’s marriage to Princess Norïme. That is until the villainous Vizier Alémar starts to plot!

Cherubini’s vocal line is free of Italian decorative thrills. Anaïs Constans handles Norïme’s high tessitura with grace, and Edgaras Montvidas’s Almanzor is a worthy heir to Louis Nourrit, the tenor who created the role in 1813. His farewell when exiled from Grenada having ‘lost’ the kingdom’s sacred standard on the battlefield is properly affecting.

Yet it’s the Purcell Choir who steal the vocal honours, with magnificent singing by the women in Act I as they prepare for the wedding, and the men rattling their vocal sabres handsomely as the plot thickens in Act II. For all that, the musical history is perhaps more striking than the opera itself.

-- BBC Music Magazine

REVIEWS:
Fanfare (1-2/00, pp.232-233) - "...The Third Quartet has an unusually bouncy opening movement for a minor-key work, and the playing here is a beath of fresh air....As a Cherubini enthusiast, I welcome the David Quartet recordings wholeheartedly..."

Luigi Cherubini was the Napoleon of the music world. Like the "little corporal" (who was, by the way, a great admirer), he was a Frenchified Italian who for years reigned at the helm of the Paris Conservatoire, the most prestigious institution of its kind in Europe, just as Napoleon dominated France. Unlike his less fortunate compatriot, however, Cherubini survived the restoration of the monarchy, living out his 82 years in honor and comfort, becoming one of the first composers to actually write his own Requiem Mass (in our own century, Frank Martin was another). As a composer, his reputation is kept alive solely by the opera Medea, one of Maria Callas' major vehicles, and in the instrumental realm, by his six late string quartets. Fastidiously crafted and supremely musical, these quartets recall Haydn, Beethoven, and Mozart in their superior thematic workmanship and classical sense of balance. They've ranked among the best-kept secrets of quartet lovers for years, and only the comparative dearth of recordings has kept them from a wider public. The complete set appeared on Deutsche Grammophon for about 15 minutes several years ago--if you blinked you probably missed it--so kudos to BIS for not only undertaking this worthy project, but also for the determination to keep it in print! The Quartetto David sounds like the best group to come out of Italy since the old Quartetto Italiano, and they do the music proud, playing with sensitivity, taste, and a real singing tone. --David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com