Stabat Mater

29810FlorilegiumStabMatBklet 16-02-2010 09:11 Pagina 1 CHANNEL CLASSICS CCS SA 29810 StabatPergolesi Mater Elin Manahan Thomas soprano Robin Blaze counter tenor 29810FlorilegiumStabMatBklet 16-02-2010 09:11 Pagina 2 “No sooner had he ceased to live than he became the liturgical texts. Pergolesi sought respite from object of an interest only equal to the indifference shown his debilitating illness of tuberculosis in a him in his lifetime.” Franciscan monastery in Pozzuoli, on the Bay of Naples. He most likely composed his iovanni Battista Pergolesi was born in four chamber cantatas at this monastery, GJesi in January 1710, and lived near which were edited immediately after his Naples during the period in which Italy was premature death in 1736, and included the a complicated patchwork of small states. Salve Regina in C minor and the Stabat After receiving an early musical training at Mater. home, the young Pergolesi was sent to the Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, which depicts Conservatorio dei Poveri di Gesù Cristo in the moving image of Mary grieving at the 1722, where he could enjoy the thriving foot of the cross, is highly dramatic in its musical life of Naples. He studied violin narrative and musical style. The sequence of under Domenico Matteis, Francesco Durante Latin verses was originally composed by and Francesco Feo, the latter who wrote Jacobus de Benedictis in the 13th century, in of his student’s exceptional technical and commemoration of the sorrows of the Virgin improvisational skills as a violinist. During Mary. The work unfolds in a series of twelve this time the Bourbon Prince, Charles iii, solos and duets for two high voices with settled in the region to re-establish the string accompaniment. Alessandro Scarlatti Kingdom of Naples as an independent state (1660-1725), also a native Neapolitan after fifteen years as an Austrian vice-realm. composer, used the same forces in his Stabat Pergolesi’s music was especially highlighted Mater written around 1700. It is believed that in the various masses held throughout the Pergolesi’s setting was commissioned by the city to celebrate this momentous event. Duke of Maddaloni to replace Scarlatti’s The young composer worked for a work, which was considered a little old number of patrons in the vicinity, and fashioned for the nobleman’s contemporary spent the last two years of his life serving taste. Pergolesi’s version clearly attests to Domenico Marzio Caraffa, the Duke of his abundant melodic gifts, a contrapuntal Maddaloni. At this time he devoted himself ingenuity, in addition to a demonstration of almost entirely to the interpretation of profound harmonic skills. The frequent 2 29810FlorilegiumStabMatBklet 16-02-2010 09:11 Pagina 3 suspensions and the gradual blending of one instantly appealing work with its lively and chord into another contrast greatly with the virtuosic outer movements, conveying the cleaner harmony changes favoured by the real essence of the baroque Italian concerto more austere North European approach style. The expressive richness of the slow of Buxtehude, Bach and others. Following movement with its haunting melody passed Pergolesi’s death, the Stabat Mater became between the flute and violin manifests itself one of the most widely disseminated and in a gleaming lyricism that cannot fail to frequently printed manuscripts of the 18th leave a memorable impression. century. Johann Sebastian Bach’s German Pergolesi followed the Neapolitan setting of Psalm 51 (Tilge, Höchster, meine tradition of his predecessors, composing Sünden), a tribute to Pergolesi in the form primarily vocal works for the stage and of a musical parody, is an example of the church. However, of the some sixty-odd numerous arrangements and adaptations it instrumental works falsely bearing his name inspired. (and now known to have been written after Pergolesi’s posthumous celebrity status his death), the Sinfonia in F major for cello was such a magnet in the music world and continuo is undoubtedly authentic based that, hoping to reap large financial profits, on extensive research of his handwriting and publishers and opera directors alike attri- the manuscript’s watermarks. The piece was buted his name to hundreds of vocal and most likely intended for the Duke of instrumental works by lesser-known com- Maddaloni, who was an amateur cellist. posers. For instance, the only extant manu- Sinfonia as a title for a solo instrumental script of the Flute Concerto in G major is work may be misleading, but it follows housed in the Library in Stockholm, quite essentially the sonata di chiesa format of four a distance from Naples. Initially linked to contrasting movements, here: Comodo- Pergolesi, this G major concerto and the Allegro-Adagio-Presto. It possesses an Flute Concerto in D major are most pro- unmistakeable charm and spontaneity, and bably compositions by some other Italian gives the cello compass to sing and be compatriots who hoped the hallowed name incisive. The final movement of the Sinfonia would help promote and sell their music. may be particularly familiar to 20th- and 21st- Nonetheless, the G major concerto is an century ears from the Pulcinella score Igor 3 29810FlorilegiumStabMatBklet 16-02-2010 09:11 Pagina 4 Stravinsky composed for the Ballets Russes to produce a series of stylistically and production at the Paris Opéra in 1920. texturally contrasted movements. Pergolesi The impresario Sergei Diaghilev persuaded originally wrote his Salve Regina for soprano Stravinsky (after Manuel de Falla declined) in C minor, but it was soon adopted in a to arrange and base his music on manuscripts version in F minor for alto, as heard on this he believed to be entirely by Pergolesi. The recording. In fact, so popular was this work, Italian baroque composer’s influence and one can research its ninety-two sources, mystique were still an inspiration some two transposed into six different keys. There are hundred years later! After Stravinsky viewed no fewer than thirty-eight sources for the the manuscripts, he “fell in love.” Stravinsky version in F minor alone. re-orchestrated the Presto for trombone and Although Pergolesi’s fame was restricted double bass solos in the ballet, yet each note during his lifetime to the confines of Rome of Pergolesi is still present. and Naples, his reputation certainly eclipsed Like the Stabat Mater, the Salve Regina most other composers in the second half of was also a product of Pergolesi’s final few the eighteenth century. Ever the observant weeks at Pozzuoli. The Salve Regina is one music critic, Charles Burney commented: of the four great Marian antiphons sung “The instant [Pergolesi’s] death was known, every day to close the liturgical offices. In all Italy manifested an eager desire to hear the early part of the 18th century in Italy, and possess his productions.” This turned these antiphons eulogizing the Virgin were out to be the case throughout Europe. normally set in the style of solo motets, the prose text being divided into several sections © Ashley Solomon & Jennifer Morsches 4 29810FlorilegiumStabMatBklet 16-02-2010 09:11 Pagina 5 “Kaum war sein Leben zu Ende, da fand er ebenso viel loni, wo er sich fast ausschließlich der Inter- Interesse, als man ihm während seines Lebens pretation liturgischer Texte widmete. Seine Gleichgültigkeit erwiesen hatte.” letzten Monate verbrachte er in einem Franziskanerkloster in Pozzuoli an der Bucht iovanni Battista Pergolesi wurde im von Neapel, wo er die Linderung seiner GJanuar 1710 in Jesi geboren und wohnte Krankheit suchte, die zu seinem frühen Tod in der Nähe von Neapel zu jener Zeit, als führte. Hier im Kloster in Pozzuoli hat er Italien ein Flickenteppich aus kleinen Staaten vielleicht seine vier Kammerkantaten war. Damals herrschte in Neapel ein blühen- komponiert, die sofort nach seinem Tod des musikalisches Leben, und da er zu Hause herausgegeben wurden, das Salve Regina in schon früh Musikunterricht genossen hatte, c-Moll und das Stabat Mater. Mit dem wurde er dort 1722 zum Studium an das Komponieren begann er im Alter von zwan- Conservatorio dei Poveri di Gesù Cristo zig Jahren, aber schon mit sechsundzwanzig geschickt. Er studierte Violine bei Domenico (im März 1736) erlag er der Tuberkulose. Matteis, Francesco Durante und Francesco Pergolesis Stabat Mater mit seiner bewe- Feo, der häufig über seine außergewöhnliche genden Darstellung der trauernden Maria am Gewandtheit und Improvisationskunst als Fuß des Kreuzes ist hochdramatisch in Geiger schrieb. Pergolesi war in Neapel, als seinem erzählenden und musikalischen Stil. der Bourbone Karl iii. einzog, um das König- Die Folge lateinischer Verse hatte ursprüng- reich Neapel wieder als unabhängigen Staat lich Jacobus de Benedictis im 13. Jahrhundert zu etablieren, nachdem es einige Jahrzehnte zum Gedenken des Kummers der Jungfrau lang einen österreichischen Vizekönig gehabt Maria komponiert. Das Werk entfaltet hatte, und Pergolesis Musik gehörte zu den sich in einer Reihe von zwölf Soli und Werken, die dazu ausgewählt wurden, das Duetten für zwei hohe Stimmen mit Ereignis in verschiedenen Messen zu feiern, Streicherbegleitung. Alessandro Scarlatti die in der ganzen Stadt gehalten wurden. Er (ebenfalls ein Neapolitanischer Komponist) war für einige Gönner aus der Umgebung hatte dieselben Mittel in seinem Stabat tätig und verbrachte die beiden letzten Jahre Mater verwendet, komponiert um 1700, und seines Lebens im Dienst von Domenico man nimmt an, dass Pergolesis Fassung ein Marzio Caraffa, dem Herzog von Madda- Auftragswerk des Herzogs von Maddaloni 5 29810FlorilegiumStabMatBklet 16-02-2010 09:11 Pagina 6 war, um Scarlattis Werk zu ersetzen, das für nisten, die sich des Namens Pergolesi be- den zeitgenössischen Geschmack ein bisschen dienten, um ihre Werke leichter verkaufen zu altmodisch erschien. Dieses Werk zeugt für können. Dennoch ist das G-Dur-Konzert mit Pergolesis verschwenderische melodische seinen lebhaften und virtuosen Ecksätzen ein Begabung, seine kontrapunktische Genialität, sofort ansprechendes Werk, das den Wesens- und darüber hinaus bewies er seine gehalt des barocken italienischen Konzertstils außerordentliche harmonische Gewandtheit.

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