A.M. Grétry, Ballet Suite and Overture of "La Rosière Républicain"

[Jos Wylin]

As a Belgian, I considered it my sacred duty to bring A.M. Grétry (Liège, 1741-1813) into the spotlights again. In his time, he was pretty famous, but now he has disappeared into oblivion completely. As a contemporary of Mozart (they knew each other), he wrote in the typical classical style, mainly opera buffa.

From the opera "La Rosière Républicaine" (1794) a ballet suite was made some years later and a first complete edition of the opera appeared in 1867. The overture (and the whole opera I suppose) have never been recorded, as far as I know.

That's why I took the liberty to make a complete VSL-score of the ballet suite and the overture. They can be listened to here:

La Rosière Républicaine - A.M. Grétry

Enjoy the listen!

Max Hamburg

[William]

This was interesting to hear, and a worthwhile thing to do with VSL sounds to bring to light a neglected composer.  I often think of why one composer is remembered, another forgotten - in this case he was too much like Mozart who was more brilliant in his early works and then went way beyond (almost anyone in fact) in his later works.  However, that does not mean this composer should be forgotten.

[Jos Wylin]

Thanks, William.

You're absolutely right. Too many contemporary composers (same era, same style) in Mozarts time remained in his shadow. I can think of a number of Czech composers who wrote fabulous music, but faded away in the course of time.

Grétry was a good composer, known by Mozart. He was educated in Italy and mainly worked in Paris (teacher composition at the Paris Conservatory) but produced lots of comical operas to survive (obviously that genre was popular enough) and from time to time, he dared to tackle delicate subjects like the French Revolution.

Thanks for listening.

Max