The overture to " Lodoiska" is one of the most spirited compositions I ever heard, and was admirably played by the Drury Lane band [in 1794]. Storace had the second movement of it struck off in an allegro spirituoso time, which electrified the audience, who called for its repetition with vehement applause; yet, when I went to Paris, I heard the same overture, (which by the way was not the original one, nor that which I had heard when before in Paris) of which the second movement, so brilliantly performed at Drury Lane, was played slow, by which it lost all its effect. I was introduced to Kreutzer, the composer of it, and sat down to the piano-forte, and played it in the time in which it was played in England; he thought himself the effect would be better: and on the 18th of August, 1802, Napoleon's birthday, there was a grand orchestra in the Thuilleries, conducted by Kreutzer, who was the first violin; he led his overture to "Lodoiska," in the same time as it was played at Drury Lane; the effect was prodigious, and shouts of applause followed. << less