Release Date: 03 January 2006
Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 747313244720
Genres: Classical
Composer/Series: PERGOLESI
Description
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710-1736)Stabat Mater Salve Regina A wide mouth with a pronounced lower lip; the left leg visiblyshorter than the right: the only portrait posterity has of Giovanni BattistaPergolesi is a drawing by a Roman caricaturist called Leone Ghezzi. The artistand the composer had become acquainted two years before the latter's earlydeath. Ghezzi confirmed that Pergolesi had had a serious problem with one ofhis legs. It may further be assumed, from the fact that the boy was confirmedwhen only fifteen months old, that he was then gravely ill: religiousprecautions such as this were only resorted to when a child's life was in danger.Considering his apparently very delicate constitution, it isall the more astonishing how much Giovanni Battista Pergolesi achieved in thebrief span of life allotted to him. Born on 4 January 1710 at Jesi, near Ancona, he received his early musical education from the local cathedral organist. These lessonsmust have been extremely successful, because in 1726, when Pergolesi went to Naples, he was already a highly competent violinist. Here, at the foot of Vesuvius, heattended violin classes at the Conservatorio dei Poveri (Conservatory for thePoor) and also received training in composition. His first authenticated work,the cantata O salutaris hostia, is dated 1729. Two years later a sacreddrama and an oratorio were produced in the monastery of Sant' Agnello Maggiorein Naples. There followed two further stage works and a Mass in F commissionedby the city, which gave the composer's name welcome publicity. 1832 saw thecompletion of Lo frate'nnamorato, a delightful and extremely successful comedyabout a friar in love, composed to a libretto in Neapolitan dialect.In 1733 Pergolesi produced one of his most famous works.Following the customs of the time he filled the interval in his first opera Ilprigioniero superbo with the entertaining intermezzo La serva padrona (TheMaid Turned Mistress), and this entr'acte for two singers and a silent servantproved a resounding success. Even in France, which had a completely differentperception of opera, this Italian work left a lasting impression: some twentyyears after Pergolesi's death the so-called querelle des bouffons eruptedin Paris, dividing the partisans of French and Italian opera into two camps, adispute further exacerbated by Jean-Jacques Rousseau's one-acter Le devin du village in 1752.Pergolesi was unable to repeat the triumph of La servapadrona with his next operas. After a short period in the service of acertain Duke Maddalani in Rome in 1734 he returned to Naples. He was now 24. In1736 he withdrew into the Capuchin monastery in Pozzuoli to try to strengthenhis weak constitution, and here he wrote his last works, the Stabat Mater forsoprano, alto, strings and organ, and the Salve Regina in C minor forsoprano, strings and continuo. He died on 16 March 1736 aged just 26.The Stabat Mater was written to a commission from theConfraternit?á dei Cavalieri di S
Tracklisting
Dariia Lytvishko
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra; Marin Alsop
Alice Di Piazza; Basel Sinfonietta; NDR Bigband; Titus Engel
Anna Alas i Jove; Miquel Villalba
David Childs; Black Dyke Band; Nicholas Childs
Yaqi Yang; Margarita Parsamyan; Robynne Redmon; Minghao Liu; Frank Ragsdale; Kim Josephson; Kevin S
Vilmos Csikos; Olivier Lechardeur; Manon Lamaison
Tomas Cotik; Martingale Ensemble; Ken Selden
