Luigi Cherubini’s lone symphony is a charming work that goes no further than Mozart or Haydn would have, but it’s none the worse for that. Tovey described Cherubini as a composer whose music consisted “entirely of inhibitions”, but that isn’t really fair. There’s plenty of action in this lively piece, and if the music is expressively restrained, it’s hardly subdued in the sense that it risks turning boring. The symphony has not been recorded all that often, so it’s nice to have this attractive performance available. The orchestra is good, although the woodwinds aren’t always perfectly tuned, but the conducting is vigorous and the performance refreshingly pert. Certainly there’s no lack of spirit in the allegros, and the slow movement has considerable lyric charm.
The same observations hold true of the overtures. Ifigenia is an early work, but the much later, 11-minute multi-sectional prelude to the comic opera Le crescendo is a real discovery (evidently this is its premiere recording), one that adds a new dimension to a composer otherwise known for writing one tragic opera and two, count ’em, two Requiems. The 1980s sonics are very pleasing, just like the entire program. Playing time is a bit short (a little more than 50 minutes), but even so this disc could well plug a gap in many collections, and I recommend it accordingly. [1/3/2008]
