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Pergolesi - A Neapolitan Stabat Mater | ICSM Records ICSM012

Pergolesi - A Neapolitan Stabat Mater

£12.69

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Label: ICSM Records

Cat No: ICSM012

Barcode: 5060399880183

Format: CD

Number of Discs: 1

Genre: Vocal/Choral

Release Date: 3rd May 2019

Contents

About

Since the middle of the 18th century, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater has been an absolute triumph all over Europe. Its initial success in Lyon can be accredited to the booming musical societies, in particular, the Académie du Concert. This academy was one of the most formidable of its kind, performing a wide range of sacred and profane Italian and French music. In the library of this outstanding institution, now kept in Lyon’s library, Franck-Emmanuel Comte found a very unusual manuscript of the Stabat Mater. This manuscript is presented in an unexpected arrangement. Apart from a few minor modifications in the instrumental parts, the second solo voice part is entrusted to a baritone (without a doubt because of the disappearance of the castrati), while the fugues and verse O quam tristis are arranged for five voices. Thus, the Latin poem takes on a whole new dimension, gaining theatricality and dramatic emphasis.

In order to accompany this dramatisation of the Stabat Mater as well as nourish its intention, Le Concert de l’Hostel de Dieu have integrated various traditional polyphonies (Stabat Mater, Miserere...), songs (Donna Isabella, La Carpinese) and two tarantellas. This juxtaposition of scholarly music and popular art, of the sacred and the profane, conveys the Neapolitan soul. Today, this authentic spirit continues to flourish, especially during Holy Week, through incredible and bewitching ceremonies. Musically, these are characterized by an astonishing convergence of religious songs sung by the celebrants, polyphonies improvised by the confreres in procession carrying the cross, flonflons (loud party music) of the local band interpreting extracts from the Stabat Mater or from a Verdi opera, and simultaneously outdoors, tarantellas are sung, danced and hammered. This musical amalgamation resonates continuously on the forecourts of the churches whose doors have remained ajar... From all this, a collective emotion emerges, one that is mystical and festive, painful and joyous, surprising and troublesome.

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