Cherubini Contrepoint

Cherubini’s major sacred works are generally quite marvelous. The two Requiems have a distinguished history on disc. Toscanini recorded the C minor, Markevitch the D minor, and my colleague David Vernier praised the recent release of the C minor piece on Carus. They are both truly excellent: grave and austere, but also dynamic, moving, and well worth hearing. The same is certainly true of the large-scale Masses: the Missa solemnis in D minor and E major and the Mass in F are especially memorable. Their grandeur never strains for effect and is always leavened with the composer’s Italian lyricism. Cherubini may not have been well-treated by history, but he knew what he was doing.

These six Sonatas represent some of Cherubini's earliest published compositions (Florence, c1783). The disc therefore offers the opportunity to experience and assess another side of a composer better known for his operas (especially Médée of 1797) and liturgical music (amongst which two Requiem Masses figure highly). All the works are in two movements. There is much to enjoy in these charming Sonatas, not least a spirited joie de vivre, an appealing wit and an almost all-pervasive charm.

This 10 CD-Set offers a collection of the most popular Mass compositions from the Viennese Classics up to the romantic period. It includes famous masterpieces like Mozart’s „Coronation Mass“, Beethoven Missa solemnis, Haydn „Harmony Mass“, Gounod St. Cecilia Mass but also rarities like „Missa Sancti Joannis Nepomuceni“ by Michael Haydn, the „Coronation Mass“ by Cherubini, „Missa sacra“ by Robert Schumann and the „Misa solemnis“ of the german romantic composer Friedrich Kiel. Performed by well known artists like the Vienna Boys’ Choir, RIAS Chamber Choir, Tölzer Boys’ Choir, Wiener Akademie and last but not least also includes the spectacular recording of Beethoven’s Missa solemnis with conductor Michael Gielen.

The Kammerchor Stuttgart, under the direction of Frieder Bernius is one of the finest choirs worldwide. Their many prizewinning recordings have set a standard. Now Frieder Bernius presents Beethoven's "Missa in C major" (op. 86). With its tonal language of subjective avowal, the first of Beethoven's two masses opens up new worlds of expression which are expressly modern and point towards the future. Not to be considered a preliminary work to the Missa solemnis, it is an entirely independent work which set standards for the further development of settings of the Mass in the 19th century. The world premiere recording of Luigi Cherubini's "Sciant gentes" (1829) rounds out this CD.

Superb individual players yet perfectly integrated tonally. They are also thoroughly at home in Cherubini's sound-world. In short these modern-instrument performances could hardly be bettered.

Luigi Cherubini - Missa Solemnis in D minor
Patricia Wells, Lou Ann Lee, Maureen Forrester - The Clarion Concerts Orchestra & Chorus / Newell Jenkins
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 379 MB | Artwork | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Vanguard Classics # 08 5026 71 | Country/Year: US 1996, 1971
Genre: Classical | Style: Vocal, Choral, Sacred, Classicism

Luigi Cherubini (8 or 14 September 1760 – 15 March 1842) was an Italian composer who spent most of his working life in France. His most significant compositions are operas and sacred music. Beethoven regarded Cherubini as the greatest of his contemporaries.

Thanks to the new Cherubini Edition, the composer’s unknown comic opera “Koukourgi” was staged for the first time in celebration of his 250th anniversary 2010. The premiere production of Luigi Cherubini‘s opera “Koukourgi” at the Klagenfurt Stadttheater revealed a work that combines a tale from ancient China with the sensibility of the French Revolutionary times of its composition. The three act opera sees a young Chinese man battling for the hand of his sweetheart against the Tartar mandarin Koukourgi, the not unlikeable anti-hero described as a large pumpkin. The turmoil in Paris led to Cherubini’s librettist Honoré-Nicolas-Marie Duveyrier being imprisoned in the Bastille and fleeing to Denmark.The opera was left with the finale incomplete and has remained unperformed for over two centuries.

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.