OTD in Music History: Composer Maria Luigi Carlo Zenobio Salvatore Cherubini (1760 - 1842) -- better known as Luigi Cherubini -- is born in Italy.
Although Cherubini is now largely relegated to the pages of music history books, in his own time he commanded widespread praise from the highest quarters.
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 - 1827) regarded Cherubini as his "greatest" contemporary, and at his specific request, Cherubini's 1st Requiem Mass (1816) was performed at Beethoven's funeral. Giaochino Rossini (1792 - 1868) hailed Cherubini's operas, and Hector Berlioz (1803 - 1869) and Robert Schumann (1810 - 1856) both praised them in the press. Cherubini was also good friends with Frederic Chopin (1810 - 1849), and in 1841 he became the first musician to be awarded the prestigious "Commandeur de la Legion d'honneur."
Cherubini's "posterity problem" stems in large part from the fact that after he assumed the directorship of the Paris Conservatoire in 1822, he discharged his duties in a highly reactionary manner and thus came into intense conflict with Berlioz (who studied there from 1824 to 1830). The two men personally despised each other, and Berlioz's deeply unflattering portrayal of Cherubini in his "Memoirs" (1865) went a long way towards tarnishing the older man's reputation.
Nevertheless, despite his posthumous fall from grace, Cherubini’s work has never entirely faded from view; for example, Maria Callas (1923 - 1977) performed his opera “Medea” dozens of times over the course of her career.
PICTURED: An autograph receipt that Cherubini wrote out and signed in 1837, accounting for royalties from the publication of his 2nd Requiem Mass (1836).
Cherubini actually wrote the 2nd Requiem Mass -- which only employs male voices -- for use at his *own* funeral, after his 1st Requiem Mass came in for criticism by Catholic authorities for utilizing female voices.
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