Pergolesi: Stabat Mater

Interesting recording of the famous Stabat Mater by Pergolesi performed by the Accademia Bizantina, under the direction of Ottavio Dantone. The program is complemented by the very little-known and interesting Salve Regina by Porpora. It is a version with original instruments and notable historical criteria. It is worth highlighting the good role of the solo voices.

Seux génies du baroque italien à la filiation évidente et dont la musique emplit églises, palais et théâtres du Royaume napolitain au début du XVIIIè siècle sont ici réunis : Alessandro Scarlatti (1660–1725) et Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710–1736).

…in the Stabat mater… Nuria Rial's clean-toned singing in 'Vidit suum' has impressive control, clarity and profound expression. The two voices blend effectively in 'Quis est homo'. Some aspects are superbly judged: several ritornelli are perfectly weighted and the Ricercar Consort play with sensual warmth - a sensation encouraged by a larger body of strings than is used in some performances.

Among the dozens or perhaps hundreds of available recordings of Pergolesi's Stabat Mater, a subgroup of recent ones has emphasized its very operatic style. Within this group, performers have gone in various directions, but a single one is represented here: sheer vocal beauty of a sort that just doesn't come along every day. The vocal line trumps the dramatic meaning of the text here, but the duets between soprano Véronique Gens and countertenor Gérard Lesne are so gorgeous that you just won't care.

Russian Julia Lezhneva here shows an admirably gutsy attitude toward developing her repertory, avoiding familiar milestones in favor of an original project. Here she is paired with French countertenor Philippe Jaroussky in a program of works by Pergolesi for two high voices, strings, and continuo: the Stabat mater, for which there are plenty of other recordings, and the less-common Laudate pueri dominum and Confitebor tibi Domine. The distinctive feature here – which might tempt some to use the word "gimmick," but listen before doing so – is that Lezhneva fashions her voice into a very close copy of Jaroussky's, which is not at all an easy thing to do. Put this together with the precise, rather edgy playing of I Barocchisti under Diego Fasolis, and the result is a rather otherworldly Stabat mater.

Longstanding partners Sandrine Piau and Christophe Rousset have frequently performed the Stabat Mater, an emblematic work of the eighteenth-century Neapolitan repertory, both together and with other musicians. It was therefore a natural step for them to record this supreme masterpiece of sacred music. They are joined here by a relative newcomer to Les Talens Lyriques who has also become a regular partner with the ensemble, the American countertenor Christopher Lowrey (already heard on an Alpha disc devoted to Monteverdi, Alpha 216).

Pergolesi’s sublime setting of the Stabat mater, a 13th-century text that was accepted as part of the Catholic liturgy only in 1727, was written at the end of his brief life (he died in 1736 at the age of 26) and suggests that had he lived longer his name might be as familiar as Vivaldi. Rossini, in particular, admired it to such an extent that he was reluctant to accept the commission for his own setting (1842) on the grounds that it could never equal Pergolesi’s.

Pergolesi's Stabat mater and his C minor Salve Regina were coupled earlier on the Hogwood (L'Oiseau-Lyre) recording, highly praised by NA. The addition of another Salve Regina, this one attributed not quite conclusively to Scarlatti as a late work, provides the new record with a further attraction both on the piece's own merit (irrespective of authorship) and in its affinity with the Stabat mater. Another attraction for many will lie in the identity of the two singers and the conductor.

At the end of a brief but brilliant career - his compositions cover a period of just over six years - Giovanni Battista Pergolesi worte his last two works, the 'Stabat Mater' and the 'Salve Regina' in C minor. Nicola Porpora's 'Salve Regina' for solo voice and instruments, recorded here for the first time, was probably written during the composer's stay in Venice as 'maestro di cappella' of the Ospedale degli Incurabili, from 1726 to 1733, no doubt for one of the young ladies attending the musical establishment.