Луиджи Керубини: Жизнь и творчество итальянского композитора

Italian composer (1760–1842)
the Italian footballer

Maria Luigi Carlo Zenobio Salvatore Cherubini (,/k//ɛr//ʊ/'/b//iː//n//i/ KERRuuBEEnee; luˈiːdʒi keruˈbiːni; 8 or 14 September 1760 – 15 March 1842) was an Italian Classical and Romantic composer. His most significant compositions are operas and sacred music. Beethoven regarded Cherubini as the greatest living composer of his era. Cherubini's operas were heavily praised and interpreted by Rossini.

Cherubini was born Maria Luigi Carlo Zenobio Salvatore Cherubini in Florence in 1760. There is uncertainty about his exact date of birth. Although 14 September is sometimes stated, evidence from baptismal records and Cherubini himself suggests the 8th is correct. Perhaps the strongest evidence is his first name, Maria, which is traditional for a child born on 8 September, the feast day of the Nativity of the Virgin.

After Les deux journées, Parisian audiences began to favor younger composers such as Boieldieu. Cherubini's opera ballet Anacréon was an outright failure and most stage works after it did not achieve success. Faniska, produced in 1806, was an exception, receiving an enthusiastic response, in particular by Haydn and Beethoven. Les Abencérages (1813), an heroic drama set in Spain during the last days of the Moorish kingdom of Granada, was Cherubini's attempt to compete with Spontini's La vestale; it received critical praise but few performances. Disappointed with his lack of acclaim in the theater, Cherubini turned increasingly to church music, writing seven masses, two requiems, and many shorter pieces. During this period (under the restored monarchy) he was appointed Surintendant de la Musique du Roi, a position he would hold until the fall of Charles X (1830). In 1815 London's Royal Philharmonic Society commissioned him to write a symphony, an overture, and a composition for chorus and orchestra, the performances of which he went especially to London to conduct, increasing his fame. Cherubini's Requiem in C minor (1816), commemorating the anniversary of the execution of King Louis XVI of France, was a huge success. The work was greatly admired by Beethoven, Schumann and Brahms. In 1836, Cherubini wrote a Requiem in D minor to be performed at his own funeral. It is for male choir only, as the religious authorities had criticised his use of female voices in the earlier work.

In 1822, Cherubini became director of the Conservatoire and completed his textbook, Cours de contrepoint et de fugue, in 1835. His role at the Conservatoire brought him into conflict with the young Hector Berlioz, who portrayed the old composer in his memoirs as a crotchety pedant. Some critics, such as Basil Deane, maintain that Berlioz's depiction has distorted Cherubini's image with posterity. There are many allusions to Cherubini's personal irritability among his contemporaries; Adolphe Adam wrote, "some maintain his temper was very even, because he was always angry." Nevertheless, Cherubini had many friends, including Szymanowska, Rossini, Chopin and, above all, the artist Ingres. The two had mutual interests: Cherubini was a keen amateur painter and Ingres enjoyed practising the violin. In 1841, Ingres produced the most celebrated portrait of the old composer. Although chamber music does not make up a large portion of his output, what he did write was important. Wilhelm Altmann, writing in his Handbuch für Streichquartettspieler (Handbook for String Quartet Players) about Cherubini's six string quartets, stated that they are first rate and regarded Nos. 1 and 3 as masterworks. His String Quintet for two violins, viola and two cellos is also considered a first rate work. During his lifetime, Cherubini received France's highest and most prestigious honors. These included the Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur (1814) and Membre de l'Académie des Beaux Arts (1815). In 1841, he was made Commandeur de la Légion d'honneur, the first musician to receive that title. Cherubini died in Paris in 1842 at age 81 and is buried at Père Lachaise Cemetery, just four metres from his friend Chopin. His tomb was designed by the architect Achille Leclère and includes a figure by the sculptor Augustin Alexandre Dumont representing "Music" crowning a bust of the composer with a wreath.