Ciaccona from Traetta's Antigona. скачать в хорошем качестве

Ciaccona from Traetta's Antigona.

This is a video version of an audio file I uploaded some years ago. The brass (except for one French Horn) is played on the First organ. Which is a pity because Traetta used a special type of trumpet found in St Petersburg that could play almost all the notes even without valves. Catherine II of Russia had invited him to St. Petersburg, but he was annoyed by some of her demands. She wanted Antigona to have a happy ending (Royalty didn't like unhappy endings) and a chaconne like Lully's Armide. The Russian czars patterned their court after Louis XIV of France. Traetta was an important influence on Mozart, and I hear echoes of this Chaconne in Don Giovanni's descent into hell. Whether or not there is the music of Polish independence in the opera (that was the story of Traetta's revenge on Catherine, that led to his fleeing the city and her poisoning his librettist) this does not sound like a happy ending.