Gluck composer biography

Christoph Willibald Gluck was the epitome of the 18th-century composer, working at the service of any court that might employ him, and writing music that was never less than well-mannered.

But he was also that rare thing, an artist who managed to absorb and transcend the spirit of his age. The ‘reform’ operas that Gluck composed from the 1760s reflect the ideals of the late Enlightenment, and Orfeo ed Euridice can be counted amongst the greatest of musical works for the stage.

Gluck was born in what is now Bavaria. His father Alexander Johannes belonged to a dynasty of foresters and hoped his first surviving son would follow in his footsteps.

Gluck composer biography

From an early age it was woodwind more than woodland that excited the younger Gluck. He escaped first to Prague then to Italy, where he learnt his musical craft studying in Milan with the composer GB Sammartini. Within four years Gluck had begun to write Artaserse, based on a libretto by the poet Metastasio and premiered in 1741, the