Martini: Requiem pour Louis XVI

[mikehopf]

Just out on Spectacles de Versailles series and conducted by Herve Niquet: Martini's Requiem pour Louis XVI.

Written in 1811, it's a powerful work though a little dry for my tastes.

[Alan Howe]

Details here:
https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8768023--martini-requiem-pour-louis-xvi

[jdperdrix]

Wrong king!
It's requiem for Louis XVI...

[Alan Howe]

Duly corrected throughout. Thanks!

[Alan Howe]

The Requiem was Martini's last composition, written in honour of Louis XVI of France and performed in the Basilica of St Denis on 21 January 1816, the anniversary of the monarch's execution in 1793. He died in Paris in February of the same year.

[jdperdrix]

Martini's requiem was first performed at the Royal Basilica of Saint-Denis for the transfer of the remains of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette on 21 January 1815, and was performed again the following year. As Napoléon's first abdication occurred on 6 April 1814, it is presumed that Martini reworked a previous Requiem composed in 1811 (under Napoléon!)
The same day, 21 January 1815, another Requiem to the memory of Louis XVI, by Neukomm, was performed  in Vienna, during the Congress of Vienna.
Also to the memory of Louis XVI, Cherubini's first Requiem was performed on 21 January 1817.