Joseph Bologne

When it comes to jaw-dropping extra-musical acclaim, there is no one to touch Bologne

What is it about the exploits of titled composers that courts notoriety? Think of the Prince of Venosa and Count of Conza (better known as Gesualdo), whose harmonically tortured music neatly counterpoints his fame as a double murderer. Or more benignly, how about the eccentric Lord Berners, who dyed his pigeons all the colours of the rainbow and motored around in a Rolls-Royce boasting its own customised clavichord? When it comes to jaw-dropping extra-musical acclaim, however, there is no one to touch Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges. The spelling of his name and the year of his birth might be open to dispute, but there’s no debating that he was a man of many talents, and outstanding in all of them. In the age of social media he’d have been a natural as an ‘influencer’; in pre-revolutionary Paris his influence cut deep.

Born in Guadeloupe