...[T]hanks to the generosity of the Duchesse de Berry, a training school for poor children who wished to devote themselves to the study of singing was founded... [the] Institution royale de musique classique et religieuse.... Here children and young people of both sexes were taught; from them I later heard splendid performances of the best church music. I recall with delight the mastery they showed in their singing of Handel - the Messiah, Alexander's Feast, and the Utrecht Te Deum - of Mozart's Requiem, Pergolesi's Stabat Mater, Scarlatti, Durante with all his magnificent school, Jom­melli's Benedictus Dominus making a particularly vivid impression. In that remote corner of an old and seldom visited quarter of the great and brilliant city the swan-song, as it were, of the best of the sacred musical art of Germany and Italy was heard. << less