Chorus: S-A-T-B
(No vocal soloists)
Orchestra: 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones,
timpani, tam-tam, strings

***

Introitus and Kyrie
Graduale
Sequence:  Dies irae and Lacrimosa
Offertorium:  Domine Jesu and Hostias
Sanctus and Benedictus
Pie Jesu
Agnus Dei 

Program Notes by Martin Pearlman

On January 21, 1817, an unusual memorial took place in the crypt below the abbey church of St. Denis, where most of the kings of France lay buried.  It was there, before a large audience, that Cherubini's Requiem in C minor was first performed to commemorate the twenty-fourth anniversary of the execution of Louis XVI at the hands of the Revolution.  A few years earlier, after Napoleon had abdicated and been sent to his brief exile at Elba, the restored monarchy ordered a search for the bodies of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.  They were found and brought to the crypt of St. Denis.  Then, after Napoleon's return and final defeat at Waterloo, the government of Louis XVIII planned a memorial service and commissioned Cherubini to compose a requiem for the occasion.

The success of Cherubini's requiem was immediate, and it was so overwhelming that Berlioz claimed that it gained a virtual "monopoly" over memorial concerts in France.  Beethoven, who called Cherubini "the greatest living composer," claimed that, if he himself should write a requiem, this one would be his only model.  The work was performed at Beethoven's memorial service.  For Schumann, the piece was "without equal."  It is remarkable, therefore, that this beautiful work so admired by these composers, as well as by Mendelssohn and Brahms, this requiem which the nineteenth century put on a level with the Mozart Requiem, fell into obscurity by the end of the century, along with most of the rest of Cherubini's music.

The first part of Cherubini's life centered around opera.  After growing up in Italy and residing briefly in London, he moved to Paris at the age of 27 and lived there for the rest of his life.  He quickly became a dominant figure on the French musical scene with popular successes as an opera composer, as well as a career as a well-known teacher and administrator.  He founded his own opera company just before the Revolution, but its royal connections -- the future Louis XVIII being an important patron -- forced him to disband it after a few years.             

Then his musical career waned to the point that he believed it was over.  Napoleon disliked his music, and public tastes changed.  By the beginning of the nineteenth century, Cherubini was suffering from depression and gave up composing entirely to spend his time with botany and painting.  But in 1808, he was asked to write music for a local church, and, from that point on, he took an interest in writing primarily religious music.  He had earlier introduced Mozart's Requiem to Paris for the first time, and, with the premiere of his own Requiem, he was back in the musical limelight.  In 1816, he was appointed surintendent de la musique du roi, as well as a director of music for the Royal Chapel, and in 1824 he was appointed director of the Paris Conservatoire, an influential post which he held till just before his death in 1842.  In this latter role, he shaped the course of French musical education for the rest of the century.

There is a second requiem by Cherubini, one in D minor, which he composed in the 1830's, after the archbishop of Paris objected to women singing in a funeral service.  This later work calls for men's voices only and was designated by the composer for his own funeral service.

It is striking that the Requiem in  C minor has no vocal soloists, as if the composer has moved as far away as possible from his previous life in opera.  The work opens with a dark orchestral color, having no violins in the first two movements.  In the third movement, the dramatic Dies irae (Day of wrath), we hear a dramatic, terrifying stroke on the tam-tam just before the chorus enters.  It was a controversial effect at the time, one that some listeners felt was too theatrical for religious music, but the intensity of such moments is balanced in much of the requiem by more reflective music and beautiful harmonic and melodic writing.  The entire work ends with a striking innovation for its time, an Agnus Dei which slowly fades away in a long diminuendo.  Berlioz called it an ending which "surpasses anything of the kind that has been written."

Boston Baroque Performances

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