The greatest of Gluck's immediate
followers--the greatest, because he imbibed the principles of his
master's art without slavishly reproducing his form--was Mehul
(1763-1817), a composer who is so little known in England that it is
difficult to speak of him in terms which shall not sound exaggerated to
those who are not familiar with his works. How highly he is ranked by
French critics may be gathered from the fact that when 'Israel in Egypt'
was performed for the first time in Paris some years ago, M. Julien
Tiersot, one of the sanest and most clear-headed of contemporary writers
on music, gave it as his opinion that Handel's work was less conspicuous
for the qualities of dignity and sonority than Mehul's 'Joseph.'
Englishmen can scarcely be expected to echo this opinion, but as to the
intrinsic greatness of Mehul's work there cannot be any question. He
was far more of a scientific musician than Gluck, and his scores have
nothing of his master's jejuneness. His melody, too, is dignified and
expressive, but he is sensibly inferior to Gluck in what may be called
dramatic instinct, and this, coupled with the fact that the libretti of
his operas are almost uniformly uninteresting, whereas Gluck's are drawn
from the immortal legends of the past, is perhaps enough to explain why
the one has been taken and the other left. Mehul's last and greatest
work, 'Joseph,' is still performed in France and Germany, though our
national prejudices forbid the hope that it can ever be heard in this
country except in a mutilated concert version.
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