Any chessplayer worth his salt has heard of Philidor. If not, I suggest you beat a path to Wikipedia and read about him: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philidor. He is usually regarded as the best 18th century chessplayer.
Most of us will also aware that he had an equally high profile career as a highly-regarded composer of music, but I guess few of us have ever had the chance to hear some of it.
Now is our chance... today's Guardian has a review of a double CD published by Naxos featuring Philidor's compositions, including Carmen Saeculare and various overtures.
The review is generally complimentary: "much of the music is astonishingly inventive, as one gorgeous number follows another in excitable profusion". Sounds promising, doesn't it? In a spirit of gens una sumus, I feel tempted to visit my local record store to buy a copy.
My thanks to Phil Adams for drawing my attention to this.
