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Cherubini's career as an operatic composer is temporarily suspended, as the terrifying events of the French Revolution take over Paris. 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.

Within months of signing a new theatrical contract in 1792, France declared war on Austria and Prussia. Cherubini was going to need every ounce of his charm to survive the terrifying events that followed.

Lodoïska, Act 1
Aria: Triomphons avec noblesse
Thomas Mozer, tenor, Titzikan
Orchestra of la Scala, Milan
Riccardo Muti, director

Démophon: Overture
Auser Musici
Carlo Ipata, conductor

Lodoiska, Act 2 (excerpts)
Recit: Que dis….
Hélas! Dans ce cruel asile ….. non, non perdez cette ésperance
Mariella Devia, soprano, Lodoiska
Bernard Lombardo, tenor, Floreski
Alessandro Corbelli, baritone, Varbel
Mario Luperi, bass, Altamoras
Orchestra & Chorus of La Scala, Milan
Riccardo Muti, director

Overture to Eliza, ou Le voyage aux glaciers du Mont St. Bernard
Academy of St. Martin-in-the Fields
Neville Marriner, director

Clytemnestre, recit Aux lois d’Agamemnon
Ursula Ettinger, alto
Cologne Academy
Michael Alexander Willens, conductor