Luigi Cherubini - Chant sur la mort de Joseph Haydn

Luigi Cherubini - Chant sur la mort de Joseph Haydn
EAC RIP | WAVPACK + CUE + LOG | HQ Scans
Phoenix Edition | Recorded: 1981 | Released: 2009
Cappella Coloniensis - Gabriele Ferro

A macabre picture: The press has announced the death of one of the most famous contemporary composers; another renowned composer writes a dirge – in honor of the deceased master – and then it was nothing but a newspaper hoax: The master is alive! That is exactly how it happened in 1804. The person that had been declared for dead was Joseph Haydn (who actually lived five more years after that), and the Chant sur la mort de Joseph Haydn was composed by Luigi Cherubini, who had felt particularly committed to Haydn since having been welcomed by him in Vienna.
A French Masonic Lodge commissioned Florence-born Paris resident Cherubini (1760-1842) to write a memorial cantata in honor of Haydn. Cherubini composed a score for lines written by author Louis Guillemain de Saint-Victor, who had written some essays on free masonry. These verses depict the touching singing of a dying swan “by the banks of the Danube River“. This recording has been completed with Cherubini‘s Symphony in D major.