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Luigi Cherubini sets out to learn his craft, with an eye to a future career as a theatrical composer. With Donald Macleod.

An octogenarian when he died in 1842, Cherubini's long life places him alongside three giants of the age, Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven. When he was born in 1760, Mozart was four years old, and Haydn was in his thirties. Beethoven was born a decade after Cherubini. Standing among these luminaries, all of whom he admired, Cherubini was a composer, conductor, teacher, administrator, theorist and music publisher, who enjoyed a much higher standing in his own lifetime than his present day reputation might suggest. Beethoven and latterly Wagner are just two of a long list of notables who hugely admired his music. These days it's perhaps through his masses that many people come to his music, so it may be a surprise to discover that he followed the fashion of his day, and produced a considerable number of successful operas. This week Donald Macleod follows Cherubini's progress from his Florentine childhood to Paris, where he was to settle and see his theatrical ambitions realised, in addition to taking on the directorship of the Paris Conservatoire, a position that gave him considerable influence over successive generations.

Today Cherubini jumps at the chance to work with one of the biggest names in the operatic world, Giuseppe Sarti.

Overture to Lo sposo di tre e marito di nessuna
Orchestra Internazionale d’Italia
Dmitri Jurowski, conductor

Il Giocatore:, Intermezzo
Monica Bacelli, Serpilla, soprano
Giorgio Gatti, Bococco, baritone
Accademia Strumentale Italiani
Giorgio Bernasconi, conductor

Mass in F minor (Chimay) (excerpt)
Credo
Et incarnatus est
Crucifixus
Et resurrexit
Et expecto
Et vitam venturi saeculi
Ruth Ziesak, soprano
Herbert Lippert, vocals
Ildar Abdrazakov. Bass
Bavarian Radio Choir and Orchestra
Riccardo Muti, conductor

Sonata for harpsichord no 3 in B flat major
i: Allegro comodo
ii: Rondo Andantino
Laura Alvini, harpsichord

Nemo gaudeat in festo septem dolorum BV virginis a 8 voci
Barbara Fleckenstein, soprano
Barbara Muller, alto
Bernhard Schneider, tenor
Bavarian Radio Chorus
Harald Feller, organ
Max Hanft, organ
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra
Riccardo Muti, conductor

Producer: Johannah Smith