Episode 1

The much maligned Antonio Salieri, mainly remembered today for supposedly poisoning Mozart through jealousy of the younger composer's talent, is the focus for this week's Composer of the Week. This rumour of murder has travelled over two hundred years, inspiring verse by Alexander Pushkin, an opera by Rimsky-Korsakov, to Peter Shaffer's film "Amadeus". But is it right that this once highly celebrated composer should be remembered for an unsubstantiated rumour? Salieri was at one time the most famous composer in all Europe, with the Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II as his patron. He received offers of work from the King of Sweden, and even dedicated one of his works to Marie Antoinette. He composed over forty operas, including a work premiered for the official opening in Milan of La Scala opera house. Amongst Salieri's students, which he always taught for free unless they came from wealthy backgrounds, were Beethoven, Schubert, Liszt and even Mozart's son Franz Xaver.

In the first programme, Donald Macleod looks at Salieri's formative years, including the loss of his parents early on, and the miracle when he was discovered by the composer Florian Leopold Gassmann, and taken from Venice to Vienna. We hear a specially made recording by the BBC Singers of the Missa stylo a cappella, documented as being one of Salieri's first compositions - and one which was never performed in the composer's lifetime.