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Cherubini made two visits to London, almost 30 years apart. Donald Macleod recounts the story of these experiences, one an artistic flop, the other wildly successful.

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.

In 1786 as a fresh-faced 24-year-old Italian operatic hopeful, Cherubini arrived in London to take up the position of composer-in-residence at the King’s Theatre. He was all set to conquer the London stage, but it was a much harder nut to crack than he'd anticipated.

Il Giulio Sabino
Sinfonia: 3rd mvt Allegro vivace
Auser Musici
Carlo Ipata, conductor

Horn sonata no 2 in F major
Barry Tuckwell, horn
Academy of St. Martin in the Fields Orchestra
Neville Marriner, conductor

Symphony in D major
I: Largo – Allegro
Capella Coloniensis
Gabriele Ferro, conductor

Mass no 2 in D minor (Messe solennelle)
Kyrie
Pamela Coburn, soprano
Gilsela Burandt, soprano
Cornelia Kallisch, alto
Martin Thompson, tenor
Martin Wanner, tenor
Jacob Will, bass
Stuttgart Gächinger Kantorei
Stuttgart Bach Collegium
Helmut Rilling, director

Il Giulio Sabino, Act 1
Aria: I mesti affetti miei
Maria Grazia Schiavo, Epponina, soprano
Auser Musici
Carlo Ipata, conductor

Overture in G major
Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala
Riccardo Chailly, conductor