More famous than Beethoven, Rossini was a household name – his tunes on every lip. For one tune that’s still true: the ‘Lone Ranger’ theme that brings the William Tell overture to its thrilling end. William Tell, created for the Paris Opera, also marked the end of Rossini’s stage career. At the peak of his fame, he retired. It would be 25 years before he returned to Paris.

This concert presents two sides of ‘Rossini in Paris’: the celebrity of the stage and the private persona – a composer with a sense of humour, indulging in the creative freedoms of what he liked to call the ‘sins of my old age’. The last and greatest of these ‘sins’ was his ‘Little Solemn Mass’. There’s a wink in that title – it’s about as ‘solemn’ as you can expect from a composer born to comic opera, and at 90 minutes it’s not exactly ‘little’ – but even so, it’s an expression of deeply felt faith.

These two masterpieces are connected by the authentic voice of prayer. ‘God of goodness!’ cry the Swiss in the stormy finale to Act I of William Tell; ‘Lord have mercy!’ sings the choir in the opening minutes of the Petite messe. Whether theatrical or devotional, the music reveals the dramatic instinct and abundant imagination for which Rossini is justly famous.