Charles Burney portrait Photo: Sir Joshua Reynolds 1781, Public Domain
Peter Hoar looks at the life and times of the British music historian Charles Burney (1726-1814).
Burney was one of the major musical figures of the European enlightenment.
A musician, composer, poet, astronomer, music teacher, historian, traveller and travel writer, he knew everybody and every place of any note to do with European musical life during the 18th century. He wrote the first important history of music and his books based on his travels are fascinating accounts of the musicians, orchestras, composers and patrons that set the pulse of 18th century music.
This programme about Burney looks at the world he lived in; a time when the cultures, institutions and practices of modern musical life were beginning to take shape. His life takes us into the heart of the Enlightenment.
