Pergolesi, G B - Stabat Mater - Hendricks, Barbara (soprano)
Leveranstid: Skickas vanligtvis inom 2-5 dagar
From the time of its creation, the Stabat Mater was considered the emblem of perfection and expressive beauty of eighteenth century Italian music. It assured Pergolesi an immediate posthumous reputation which inaugurated the myth of the young, genius musician who died too young. Commissioned in 1735, Pergolesi's Stabat Mater was to replace Alessandro Scarlatti's one, sung at the Church of Santa Maria dei Sette Dolori every year, and considered dusty and dated. The beginning of the eighteenth century witnessed a noticeable evolution on the part of the Neapolitan school, which considered that certain high baroque compositional tendencies and techniques had outlived their welcome. The composers preferred simplicity of melody, surprising harmonic changes and the use of frequently syncopated rhythms. With alternating duos for soprano and alto, as well as more lyrical solos for each of the two voices, the Stabat Mater is a perfect example of the alternation of the two popular styles of the eighteenth century: the stile antico, favoured by the church, and the stile moderno, which represented more secular expression. This broad, declamatory and decorative work survives in numerous manuscript copies, but was also adaptated, translated and performed everywhere in Europe from Paris to Copenhagen throughout the Age of Enlightenment. On the other hand, in the perfect style of the opera seria, Orfeo is a jewel-like cantata, in which two recitatives precede two magnificent arias, which reveals the other side of Pergolesi, that of a fine composer of opera. In 1976, Barbara Hendricks discovered the Stabat Mater when she performed it on a last-minute replacement engagement in Paris. Though impressed with the work, she never sang it again before programming it in 2007 during concerts in Morocco and in France. Since then, the Stabat has become a mainstay of her concert repertoire which she has performed from Sweden to Japan, in company of mezzo Ulrika Tenstam and the Drottningholm Baroque Ensemble.