Étude comparée de l’influence musicale et institutionnelle de Cherubini en France et dans le monde germanique entre 1787 et 1842

International audienceAfter an initial career as a composer of Italian operas, Luigi Cherubini moves to Paris in 1787. The French capital will remain his main place of residence until his death in 1842. Cherubini begins on the eve of the French Revolution an important career as a composer of "opéras-comiques" and French operas which will reach its peak during the Revolution and the Consulate before declining under the First French Empire and the Bourbon Restoration. On the contrary, Cherubini’s French institutional career experiences a continuous ascent and is of unprecedented magnitude for an Italian composer naturalized French. He is appointed professor of music in 1794 at the "Institut national de musique", which takes the name of "Conservatoire national" a year later, is appointed inspector in 1795, professor of composition in 1816, then director between 1822 and 1842, in addition to being member of the Academy of Fine Arts of the Institut of France (1815-1842) and superintendent of the Royal Chapel (1816-1830), along with his elevation to the dignity of Commander of the Legion of Honour in 1842. During his long direction, he undertakes many reforms, founds the "Société des concerts du Conservatoire" in 1828 and promotes the foundation of music schools in the province, particularly in Avignon in 1828 and Marseille in 1830. Much more modest, Cherubini’s musical and institutional career in the German-speaking world is mainly limited to his activity in Vienna in 1805 and 1806, to the failed project to succeed Joseph Haydn in 1810 as Kapellmeister of Nikolaus II, Prince Esterházy, and to some official honours, such as his status as a member of the Prussian Academy of Arts in Berlin between 1836 and 1842. The main purpose of this paper is to compare Cherubini’s musical and institutional dual influence in France and the German-speaking world, based on numerous writings published in French and German during the composer’s lifetime (writings and correspondence of librettists and composers, music press, music dictionaries, etc.), as well as obituaries published on the occasion of his death. This study makes it possible to analyze among others the reasons why the composer’s unequal institutional presence on both sides of the Rhine was accompanied paradoxically by a greater success of his "opéras-comiques" and French operas in Germany and Austria during the Bourbon Restoration and the July Monarchy