After dinner to the corso and then to an academia or private concert, all of dilitanti. Il padrone played the 1st violin, and had a very strong hand. There were 12 or 14 hands, several of the violins good, with 2 German flutes. They executed several of our [J.C.] Bach’s symphonies reasonably well, but what I liked most was the vocal part by La Signora Padrona della Casa: she had an agreeable well-toned voice, a good shake, the right sort of taste and expression, and sang (sitting down, with the paper on the common instrument desk) wholly without affection, several pretty airs of Traetta. Upon the whole this concert was much of the same kind as our private concerts among gentlemen performers in England  – sometimes in and sometimes out. In general the music was better chosen, the execution more brilliant and full of fire, and the singing much nearer perfection than we can boast on such occasions...