Catherine II's The Early Reign of Oleg: Sarti, Canobbio and Pashkevich Working towards an Ideal

This paper focuses on Catherine II’s The Early Reign of Oleg (1790) as a demonstrative performance of the sovereign’s policy. In the context of Catherine’s early nationalistic pride and her ‘Greek project’, the performance is understood as a synthesis embodying in music the vision of Russia as an Empire ready to receive the heritage of Byzantium, thanks to Sarti’s use of modes combined with the Russian folk elements introduced by Canobbio and Pashkevich. In this context, Nikolay L’vov represents the joining link, having theorised that Russian folk music originated from ancient Greek music.