Profession: composer

Soler got to know Scarlatti in his early twenties, when both were based at El Escorial. It is generally understood that Soler studied with Scarlatti; he certainly referred to himself as Scarlatti’s disciple, and is regarded as his most important one. He corresponded with Martini about Martini’s controversial (in its day) treatise on harmony.

Field taught him, but only for three lessons. Pushkin was a friend from the age of fifteen; Glinka’s second opera was based on one of Pushkin’s poems. Zhukovsky and he frequented the same circles, Glinka setting some of his poems to music. He met Bellini and Donizetti in Italy, stimulating exemplars. He also met Mendelssohn, Berlioz and Meyerbeer there — the last two stayed firm friends for life. Turgenev didn’t actually meet him until he was depressed and over-drinking in his last years. Tchaikovsky, aged eighteen, met him and described him as proud and vain, but hugely important for Russian music.

Bellini met Glinka in Italy, strongly influencing him by his example. He met Chopin, Rossini, Donizetti and Liszt in Paris, his melodies making a strong impact upon his close friend Chopin. The older Rossini befriended and influenced him. Donizetti found himself a professional rival – Bellini treated him with ill grace, being suspicious and jealous of him, Donizetti on the other hand being inspired by Bellini, and dedicating a requiem to him following his early death.

Telemann and Steffani both encouraged him, Steffani recommending him as kapellmeister in Hannover. When he was 18 he went to Lübeck to visit Buxtehude, who wanted someone to replace him there and marry his daughter (Handel declined, as did J. S. Bach two years later). In Italy, he met both Scarlatti and Corelli; both influenced him. Bach admired but never met him, despite being lent a horse to make the journey. In London, Handel gave Gluck (who revered him) advice about composing for the English, and Gay studied and worked with him. He was still sending Telemann crates of rare plants in his sixties.

He is not to be confused with Leonardo da Vinci, no relative. He studied composition under Greco and also under Durante, and after Greco’s death briefly took over his post as maestro di capello. During this time Pergolesi, whom he strongly influenced, was his student. He engaged in a significant collaboration – six operas – with his firm friend Metastasio. Farinelli, a good friend of Metastasio, regularly sung for him. Porpora and he had apparently quarreled since they were students, to the extent that they had rival gangs of fans, with Vinci seemingly not shy of sabotaging some of Porpora’s public productions.

Durante studied under Greco in his youth, then as a conservatory student under Scarlatti. As a young man he met Metastasio, later setting one of his plays to music. As a renowned teacher (he inherited Greco’s position on the latter’s retirement), his own students included Pergolesi, Vinci, Paisiello, Jommelli and Piccini, looking on Piccini more as a son than a pupil. While a rivalry has often been proposed between Durante and another significant composer of the day, Leonardo Leo, this may reflect more the rivalry that certainly existed between their opposing sets of fans, a feature of the city at the time.