Cherubini achieved a degree of popular success with
Mesenzio, re d’Etruria, a dramma eroico to a libretto by Ferdinando Casorri on a subject inspired by Virgil’s
Aeneid. The Sinfonia is a short piece with a solemn, martial gait; it displays from the outset an extremely confident use of the woodwind (flute and oboes), together with a capacity for moulding the orchestral texture which, through its pronounced rhythmic contours and carefully calculated dynamic gradations, conveys all the heroic atmosphere of the opera.
from notes by Francesco Ermini Polacci © 2012
English: Charles Johnston
