Stabat mater, for soprano, alto, strings & organ in F minor
Stabat Mater, hymn for alto, strings & continuo in F minor, RV 621
The unfamiliar-looking Pergolèse mentioned on the cover of this French budget release is merely Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, represented here by one of his best-known works, his Stabat Mater swan song. The work was finished shortly before Pergolesi's death at age 26 from tuberculosis, and it has traditionally been imbued with a quiet, Bachian reverence. Enter Italian conductor Rinaldo Alessandrini, his Concerto Italiano ensemble, and two of his star singers, who aim to restore what they see as an original intensity to ...
Read More
The unfamiliar-looking Pergolèse mentioned on the cover of this French budget release is merely Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, represented here by one of his best-known works, his Stabat Mater swan song. The work was finished shortly before Pergolesi's death at age 26 from tuberculosis, and it has traditionally been imbued with a quiet, Bachian reverence. Enter Italian conductor Rinaldo Alessandrini, his Concerto Italiano ensemble, and two of his star singers, who aim to restore what they see as an original intensity to Baroque masterpieces. Alessandrini uses a small group of period instruments that can generate sharply contrasting textures. He takes fast numbers fast and slow numbers agonizingly slow. In all, he offers interpretations of sacred music that are unashamedly operatic. In the lesser-known Vivaldi Stabat Mater included with the Pergolesi here, he doesn't seem so unorthodox for the Vivaldi work, for a single alto with strings, is frankly dramatic. In the Pergolesi, the listener who has heard...
Read Less