c Eeuropean Legal Mater Sup2rel4

Simon Mayr is mostly remembered as Donizetti’s teacher, but as recent recordings of his sacred music reveal, there is more to him than that; more, even, than the 70 operas he produced over his long career in his adopted Italy. According to expert Franz Hauk’s liner notes, Mayr produced in all some 600 sacred compositions; many of these are individual mass movements but they also included 18 complete masses.

Certainly the somber beauty of Pergolesi's Stabat Mater for soprano, alto, and strings has a lot to do with its popularity. But it must be said that the story of the 26-year-old composer completing the work on his deathbed has always been too romantic for the public–or the music business–to resist. "The instant his death was known," wrote the famous 18th-century traveler Dr. Burney, "all Italy manifested an eager desire to hear and possess his productions." And so it's been ever since. In spite of the competition already on the market, it seems Decca just had to get its prize lyric soprano and hotshot young countertenor together to record the piece. –Matthew Westphal

The Pera Ensemble, the recipient of enthusiastic critical reactions on account of its refined mixture of fragrances and flavors and a two-way exploration and enrichment of soundscapes, takes its name from a district of Istanbul which has been a melting pot of cultures and religions for more than two millennia.