★ Follow music ► [ Ссылка ]
Composer: Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714-1787)
Work: Sinfonia (concertante) in D
Performers: L'Orfеo Barockorchester
Painting: Paul Sandby (1731-1809) - Landscape with lake and large tree in foreground
Image in high resolution: [ Ссылка ]
Painting: Joseph-Siffred Duplessis (1725-1802) - Portrait de Christoph Willibald Gluck (1775)
Image in high resolution: [ Ссылка ]
Further info: [ Ссылка ]
Listen free: [ Ссылка ]
---
Christoph Willibald (Ritter von) Gluck
(Erasbach, 2 July 1714 - Vienna, 15 November 1787)
German composer of international stature. Although little is known about his youth, Gluck reported that he came from a musical family; his father, a forester, was adept at various instruments. In 1731 he attended Prague University studying logic and mathematics before moving to Italy to study music under Giovanni Battista Sammartini in Milan. His first opera, Artaserse, was performed there in 1741, followed by Demetrio in Venice a year later. Thereafter, he composed works throughout Italy before moving to London in 1746. Despite disparaging remarks by George Frederick Handel, he achieved some success there, and joined the Mingotti troupe as their Kapellmeister. He toured with them for several years until 1750, when he married the daughter of a wealthy Viennese merchant, thus allowing him economic stability. He then began to write operas for both Prague and Vienna, the latter beginning in 1754 with Le cinesi. In 1756 he was invested as a Knight of the Golden Spur by Pope Benedict XIV, thus allowing himself to be known by the title Chevalier von Gluck. By 1758 he had turned toward the opéra comique, beginning with La fausse esclave. During this period he also became acquainted with the director of the opera, Count Giacomo Durazzo, choreographers Gasparo Angiolini and Franz Hilverding, as well as librettist Raniero Calzabigi. Discussions on the dramatic ballet led to the 1761 premiere of Don Juan, followed the next year by the opera Orfeo ed Euridice, leading to an important work, Alceste, of 1767, which contains a seminal preface describing the concept of opera reform. In 1774 Gluck was called to Paris around the same time as he was named hofKapellmeister in Vienna. Here he produced a series of operas ranging from French revisions of his Viennese works to original pieces such as Iphigénie en Aulide and Armide. This led to the revival of the French opera, as well as a controversy when the Théâtre Italien brought Neapolitan composer Niccolò Piccinni to Paris to foment a rivalry similar to the Querelle des bouffons two decades earlier. In 1779 Gluck returned to Vienna following a stroke that occurred during his final opera, Écho et Narcisse. A German opera, Hunnenschlacht, remained fragmentary, and a further Parisian commission, Les Danïades, was given over to Gluck’s pupil Antonio Salieri. Gluck wrote over 50 operas, ranging from opera seria to opéra comique, as well as numerous additions to pasticcios, at least 40 ballets, ranging from divertissements to ballets d’action, 12 Lieder, nine symphonies, eight trio sonatas, four Psalms/sacred works, and a number of miscellaneous works. Gluck can be considered a seminal figure in the development and reform of opera in the Classical period. His influence ranged from Italy to Scandinavia and from Russia to France; moreover, he wrote in virtually all of the styles of opera of the period, as well as being a major contributor to the development of the 18th-century ballet. Of particular note is his ability to orchestrate his operas, using timbre effectively to create dramatic moments. His works bear Wq (Wotquenne) numbers.
