70904 for PDF 11/05 - Ivory Classics

Shura Cherkassky
The 1982 San Francisco Recital
1 - 5 Lully: Suite de pièces
Jean Baptiste Lully (1632-1687), although known as the founder of French grand opera,
was born in Florence, Italy, becoming a naturalized French citizen in 1661. At the age of thirteen
he was taken to France by the Chevalier de Guise, to amuse Mlle. de Montpensier, having
learned to play the violin and guitar from a Franciscan monk. However, he was initially
given kitchen work. It was only when he was heard playing the violin that Lully was promptly
transferred to Mademoiselle’s own orchestra. This was for only a short time, for he set to
music a satirical poem reflecting on Mlle. de Montpensier, who expelled him from her house.
After studying the harpsichord and composition he obtained a position in the band of Louis
XIV and soon organized another group, which acquired the reputation of being the finest
orchestra in France. By this time Lully was unrivaled as a violinist, and was most solidly in
the favor of the king, writing ballets and masques in which both he and the king took part.
Eventually he was given sole authority to produce operas in France, establishing
an “Academie Royale de Musique” (now the Grand Opera), and the theater of his rival,
Cambert, was closed upon order of the king.
From then on Lully was the dominating power in French music. He not only composed
prolifically, but also created new traditions in theatre discipline; taught singers how to walk
on the stage; invented steps for the ballet; changed the entrances, and above all, insisted on a
precision of attack in the orchestra. It has been said that he “more than once broke a violin
on the back of a man who was not playing to his taste, but when the rehearsal was at an end
would send for the man, pay him three times the value of his instrument, and take him out
to dine.”
He was an amusing bundle of contradictions. A master of truckling and deceit, he was
sometimes recklessly impudent to those who held power over him. Once, when a mechanical
difficulty caused delay in beginning a performance of one of his operas which the King was
attending, a message was sent to Lully that the Grand Monarque was tired of waiting. “The
King is master here,” retorted Lully, “and is at liberty to be as tired of waiting as he pleases!”
For fourteen years, as overlord of the Opera, he acted as director, composer, conductor, stagemanager,
ballet-master, and machinist (if electricity had been in use, Lully would have managed
the lights). He did all these things with superlative ability, energy, and resource; yet
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