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Music at the court of Catherine the Great: EMS 12 November
To my shame, I had to look up the years of her reign (1762 - 96) to find out how 'early' the music would be!
Yes, I'd always thought (don't know why) she was earlier, until I watched a programme on Josiah Wedgwood and discovered that he'd made dining services for her.
[FONT=Comic Sans MS][I][B]Numquam Satis![/B][/I][/FONT]
Two thirds into the programme and I am finding it hard going. There is nothing to dislike about the music but it all sounds like homogenised Western music of the time. Lucie is being sensible and simply presenting the information about the music without making any comments on the work.
The last work, a song, sounds more like Russian music, and Russian seven stringed-guitar sounds interesting.
I do wonder who writes the text on the web page; referring to Catherine as the Queen?
Yes, I'd always thought (don't know why) she was earlier, until I watched a programme on Josiah Wedgwood and discovered that he'd made dining services for her.
... and I'm sure you recall the visit of Diderot to St Petersburg at Catherine's behest.
As for me, I found it unforgiveable that Lucy Skeaping did her intro all over the opening harpsichord sonata, which I would have liked to have heard in full.
Quite interested to hear Paisiello's Barber of Seville (Figaro and all that). I was confused as to the identity of the native Russian who went to Venice to study and then came back into the Tsarina's service. His stuff sounded quite, well, Russian. I find the website details of music played less than helpful. I also wonder if the website blurb, "We hear how the Queen [sic], despite having personally little interest in music...." squares up with Lucie's script for the show. Obviously I didn't concentrate hard enough!
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