"The Italians embraced the transverse flute rather more cautiously than others, but when they did it was with characteristic enthusiasm; there are plenty more concertos where these six came from. The attribution of the Pergolesi is unqualified in the statement of contents; the annotator states that it was ''attributed to'' him, but Grove lists it as ''extremely doubtful''; it also describes the Tartini work as ''dubious'', but no hint of this is offered in the inlay-booklet. Regarding Romano Antonio Piacentino and his concerto, even that august dictionary is entirely unhelpful. The concerto proves that he existed and its style places him somewhere in the eighteenth century, but that is all. His ability to create something agreeable out of thematic commonplaces recalls Vivaldi. With Tartini and Piacentino we are in the world of the straightforward baroque instrumental concerto, while 'Pergolesi' and Galuppi show traces of operatic connections. Little is known of Louis Gianella (?1778-1817), a flautist who worked at La Scala in Milan, whose curious and otherwise unrecorded Concerto lugubre patently links his two compositional fields—those of the theatre (opera and ballet) and with-flute instrumental music, which includes two other flute concertos...Galway plays with his accustomed silver-tongued panache and has the benefit of the co-operation of both I Solisti Veneti and the recording engineers at their best."

John Duarte, Gramophone [4/1994]

PERGOLESI: STABAT MATER, SALVE

Pergolesi, Monteverdi, Frescobaldi: Stabat Mater - Sacred Ba

Alessandro Corbelli, Nuccia Focile, Amelia Felle, Bernadette Manca di Nissa, Luciana D'Intino, Ezio Di Cesare, Elizabeth Norberg-Schulz, Nicoletta Curiel, Bruno de Simone, and Luca Bonini star in this 1989 La Scala production of the Pergolesi opera conductor.

Marina Comparato, Lucia Cirillo, Anna-Maria Dell'Oste, Nicole Heaston, Stefano Ferrari, and Francesca Lombardi star in this new staging of this imperial drama by Pergolesi with Ottavio Dantone conducting the Academia Bizantina.

Two of Bach's finest cantatas, both for solo alto, composed in Weimar (1714) and Leipzig (1726) respectively, are here coupled with Pergolesi's Stabat Mater of 1736, the eighteenth century's favourite sacred work. The gap between austere Lutheran piety and searing Mediterranean emotionalism might seem unbridgeable. Yet Bach so admired the composition of his Neapolitan colleague that he made his own 'parody' of it to a German text. On this recording, La Nuova Musica and it's two eminent soloists display equal mastery of both idioms.

The horns are let loose! In their fifth GENUIN release, the german hornsound brass ensemble has brought together their favorite works and those of their fan community. And we’d be hard-pressed to find a single work in the Western musical literature that doesn’t sound at least as beautiful arranged for four horns as it does in the original. What’s more, there’s no need for troublesome singers, meddlesome conductors, and big stages for massive orchestras! In these splendid renditions, Handel’s "Rinaldo", Dvorák’s Ninth Symphony, and Mendelssohn’s "Midsummer Night’s Dream" are both glorious and groovy, exquisite and ethereal, sophisticated and sexy.

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New light on Pergolesi! This album sheds light on a lesser-known aspect of the great Italian composer, offering two masterpieces in their first modern edition and first recording: the Mass in D major and the mottettone Dignas Laudes. Both editions are the outcome of recent musicological research carried out by the Centro Studi Pergolesi in Milan, and show a facet of Pergolesi – his energetic and solemn character – that complements and amplifies the dramatic and introspective moods of his most renowned sacred works. This Arcana release inaugurates a collaboration with the Ghislieri Choir & Consort and celebrates the fifteenth anniversary of the ensemble, which specialises in eighteenth-century sacred repertory and has already recorded works by Galuppi, Jommelli, Perez (Il Mattutino de’ Morti) and Handel (Handel in Rome 1707) for Sony-DHM. The soloists on this recording, conducted by Giulio Prandi, are the soprano Marlis Petersen, one of the leading sopranos on the international scene, and a quintet of young Italian singers who already perform in the most important and prestigious European venues.

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REVIEW:

This release of two previously unrecorded pieces is an important one. The singing and orchestral playing are excellent, although there is occasionally a little too much operatic vibrato from the two principal soloists. It is good to hear the organ making itself felt in the Messa. This is a welcome addition to the Pergolesi recording library.

– Early Music Review

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PERGOLESI: Stabat Mater / Orfeo

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Pergolesi, G.B.: Stabat Mater / Salve Regina

Jochen Kowalski Sings Arias

Pergolesi: Stabat Mater - Marian Music from Naples

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MUSICA SACRA: PERGOLESI'S STAB

The four cantatas by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi recorded here were published in Naples c. 1736. A short while later, perhaps 1738, a new edition of the cantatas was published. The fact that the two publications following in short succession testifies to the singular interest the chamber works of this very young composer from Jesi, who had died in 1736, aroused in Italian and European musical circles. For all, mention need only be made of the testimony of Charles de Brosses, who, in 1739, judged the fourth cantata of the collection as “the best of the Italian cantatas”.

Giovanni Battista Pergolesi brought the theatre into churches, and religious seriousness into theatres. He is also the first musician who was never dropped from the repertory, either in theatres or in churches. Before him, only contemporary music was played and sung. His Stabat Mater and La serva padrona never stopped being performed, admired and applauded. The characters were now men and women made of flesh and blood, not stock characters, types and stilted heroes, and had the same feelings and intentions as the men and women who frequented the theatre. Pergolesi’s modernity still surprises.

PRJCT Amsterdam and its artistic director Maarten Engeltjes present two of the greatest vocal works of the baroque era: Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater and Vivaldi’s Nisi Dominus. While Vivaldi’s virtuosic piece contemplates the helplessness of people when God does not support their efforts, Pergolesi’s portrait of the weeping Mary at the Cross embodies what the “nameless” parents of a deceased child go through. In the Stabat Mater, Engeltjes’s counter-tenor blends together seamlessly and soothingly with Shira Patchornik’s soprano voice, resulting in an interpretation that is both profound and deeply relatable.

PRJCT Amsterdam is a young, innovative baroque ensemble centred around counter-tenor Maarten Engeltjes, and founded in 2017. Engeltjes is one of the most sought-after counter-tenors of today, working with several of the most esteemed early music groups and conductors. After having won multiple major baroque competitions, soprano Shira Patchornik is quickly establishing herself as an important singer on the opera and concert stage. All artists make their Pentatone debut.

No one has described Pergolesi’s vocal works more splendidly and with more understanding than the philosopher and pedagogue Jean-Jacques Rousseau, author of the Dictionnaire de musique that was extremely widespread in the 19th century, when he wrote: "Here everything contributes to deepening the effect of the text: the harmony serves only to shape it more forcefully, the accompaniment embellishes it without distorting it. In a word, the whole work of art simultaneously communicates one melody to the ear and only one idea to the mind.“ This CD offers 3 Masterpieces recorded by the long time Duo Regina Klepper and Martina Borst, accompanied by the Bamberg String Quartet.

Pergolesi, G.B.: Stabat Mater / Orfeo