Pergolesi: Stabat Mater

 
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GIOVANNI BATTISTA PERGOLESI
Pergolesi: Stabat Mater
Sandrine Piau / Christopher Lowrey / Les Talens Lyriques / Christophe Rousset

[ Alpha Classics / CD ]

Release Date: Friday 13 March 2020

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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).

The programme is completed by a Beatus vir by Leonardo Leo (1694-1744), sung by Sandrine Piau, and a Salve Regina for alto by Nicola Porpora (1686-1768), two totally unknown works by two composers who were nevertheless very famous at the time - Porpora, for example, was Farinelli's singing teacher and mentor to the youthful Haydn. Christophe Rousset finds in this music 'an expression of very Mediterranean, very highly flavoured piety, in which one moves from tears to laughter quite quickly'. Sandrine Piau sees in Leo 'an elegance of style, a certain distance in sorrow'.

"This is an excellent disc, one in which the soloists perform to a high standard, whilst they along with Les Talens Lyriques and Christophe Rousset produce a version of the Pergolesi that surpasses their earlier recording for Decca. The acoustic is sympathetic to the music which results in a well recorded and clear sound. The booklet notes by Dinko Fabris are very good and give plenty of detail about the composers and their music. All in all, this is a highly attractive recording, one I cannot recommend highly enough." MusicWeb Recommended

"Piau finds just the right balance between beauty of sound and fervent expressivity…[Lowrey] combines lucid diction with an aptly plangent sound - always beautifully controlled. Though they're rather different musical personalities, the two singers respond to each other with particular sensitivity and their voices plait together exquisitely. Rousset's 17-member ensemble produces a suave, full-bodied sound, yet the details are never muddied." BBC Music Choral & Song Choice June 2020

Tracks:

Giovanni Battista Pergolesi:
Stabat Mater, P. 77: I. Stabat Mater dolorosa
Stabat Mater, P. 77: II. Cujus animam gementem
Stabat Mater, P. 77: III. O quam tristis et dolebat
Stabat Mater, P. 77: IV. Quae moerebat et dolebat
Stabat Mater, P. 77: V. Quis est homo qui non fleret
Stabat Mater, P. 77: VI. Vidit suum dulcem natum
Stabat Mater, P. 77: VII. Eia Mater fons amoris
Stabat Mater, P. 77: VIII. Fac ut ardeat cor meum
Stabat Mater, P. 77: IX. Sancta Mater istud agas
Stabat Mater, P. 77: X. Fac ut portem Christi mortem
Stabat Mater, P. 77: XI. Inflammatus et accensus
Stabat Mater, P. 77: XII. Quando corpus morietur

Nicola Porpora:
Salve Regina in G Major: I. Salve Regina
Salve Regina in G Major: II. Ad te clamamus
Salve Regina in G Major: III. Ad te suspiramus
Salve Regina in G Major: IV.Eia ergo
Salve Regina in G Major: V. Et Jesum
Salve Regina in G Major: VI. O clemens

Leonardo Leo:
Beatus vir qui timet: I. Beatus vir
Beatus vir qui timet: II. Exortum est
Beatus vir qui timet: III. Misericors
Beatus vir qui timet: IV Iucundus homo
Beatus vir qui timet: V. Dispersit
Beatus vir qui timet: VI Gloria
Beatus vir qui timet: VII. Sicut era

Pergolesi - 'Stabat Mater' by Sandrine Piau, Christopher Lowrey, Les Talens Lyriques