eresa Stich-Randall on egg Slizabeth : Hoengen ; ae i. ri Anton Heiller, organ IO ROSSI, conaucror, BG-549 THE BACH GUILD PERGOLESI — STABAT MATER Giovanni Battista Pergolesi Side One 1. Duet, soprano and alto Stabet mater dolorosa Beneath the world’s redeeming wood STABAT MATER. Juxta crucem lacrimosa The most afflicted Mother stood TERESA STICH-RANDALL, soprano ELIZABETH HOENGEN, alto Dum pendebat filius. Mingling her tears with her Son’s blood. Vienna Akademiekammerchor 2. Aria, soprano VIENNA STATE OPERA ORCHESTRA Cujus animam gementem Through her heart His sorrows sharing Contristatam, ac dolentem Anton Heiller, organ All His bitter anguish bearing, Per transivit gladius. -Lo! the piercing sword had passed. MARIO ROSSI, conductor 3. Duet, soprano and alto O quam tristis et afflicta O, how sad and sore distressed Fuit illa benedicta Now was she, that Mother Blessed, Mater unigeniti! Of the sole-begotten One. © 4. Aria, alto . Quae moerebat et dolebat Woe-begone, with heart’s prostration Et tremebat, cum videbat Mother meek, the bitter Passion | Nati poenas inclyti. Saw she of her glorious Son. o. Duet, soprano and alto Quis est homo, qui non fleret, | Who could mark, from tears refraining, Christi matrem si videret Christ’s dear Mother uncomplaining In tanto supplico? In so great a sorrow bowed? TERESA STICH-RANDALL MARIO ROSSI ELIZABETH HOENGEN Quis non posset contristari Who unmoved behold her languish Piam matrem contemplari Underneath His cross of anguish Dolentem cum filio. Mid the fierce, this engaging naturalness, and this evident melodic beauty. unpitying crowd? ga: HE Pergolesi legend reads like a popular novel- The text is a medieval poem customarily attributed to Pro peccatis suae gentis For His people’s <4 ist’s outline for a historical romance. (Pergolesi sins rejected the Franciscan Jacopone da Todi (c. 1228-1306). Sung Vidit Jesum in tormentis %4 =6has been the subject for at least two operas, but She her Jesus, unprotected, today at the Feast of the Seven Dolours (Sept. ‘15th), it Et flagellis subditum. Saw with thorns, with iM Sed their obscurity is evidence‘ that they have scarccly was not in origin part of the Catholic liturgy and had no scourges rent. done the legend justice.) There is the usual quota of illicit music of its own. During the 13th century it came into use 6. Aria, soprano adventure, and the customary rumor of death either from as a devotion; those who used it were granted indulgences; Vidit suum dulcem natum poison or profligacy. However, there are a few things that Saw her Son from judgment: taken and eventually it found its way into liturgical books. In are fact and not fabrication; yet oddly enough they have Morientem, desolatum, Her belov’d in death forsaken 1727 it was accepted into the Roman Missal. Apart from served to enhance rather than dispel the legend. For one Dum emisit spiritum. Till His Spirit forth He sent. thing, Pergolesi, born in 1710, died very young (at twenty- the Pergolesi setting, music to this text has been composed six); for another, he died very poor. The sensational fame by Josquin des Pres, Palestrina, Haydn, Verdi, Dvorak and Side Two of his two best known works, the opera La Serva Padrona Schubert among others. 7. Aria, alto and the Stabat Mater, was entirely posthumous; the latter — Notes by ABRAHAM VEINUS, Syracuse University Eja mater, fons amoris Fount of love and holy sorrow work climaxing a career which vacillated between failures Me sentire vim doloris. Mother, may my spirit borrow and half-successes. The Stabat Mater was apparently a ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE AND RECORDING Fac, ut tecum lugeam. Somewhat death-bed composition, a fact which did not hurt its subse- Mario Rossi was born in Rome in 1902. He was a pupil at the of thy woe profound. quent popularity. The commission for it paid ten ducats Conservatory of Santa Cecelia in Rome and studied composition under 8. Duet for soprano and alto choirs in advance, or one less than it took to bury him. Ottorino Respighi. After 1921 his star rose rapidly as one of the leading young conductors in Italy. Between 193] and 1936 he taught conducting Fac, ut ardeat cor meum Unto Christ, with pure emotion The work was commissioned by a confraternity of Nea- at Santa Cecelia. From 1936 through 1944 he was the director of the In amando Christum Deum, politan nobles -(Cavalieri della Vergine de’ Dolori) who, Orchestra of the Maggio Musicale in Florence, and then became the Raise my contrite heart’s devotion so tradition has it, wanted it for a replacement for a similar directer and principal conductor of the Turin Opera and conductor of Ut sibi complaceam. Love to read in every wound. the Symphony Orchestra of Radio Turin, which he raised to the status work by Alessandro Scarlatti. As Einstein observed, Per- of one of the finest musical organizations in Europe. He is an exclusive 9. Duet, soprano and alto golesi’s Stabat Mater is not a work for the church nor even Vanguard recording artist. Teresa Stich-Randall, the American-born Sancta mater, istud agas, an example of Neapolitan church style, but an essentially soprano, has won the heart of Vienna State Opera audiences for her These five wounds on Jesus smitten silvery voice, technical perfection, and fine artistry. The critical acclaim Crucifixi fige plagas personal and intimate inspiration offered for the edification which greeted her Vanguard .- Bach Guild recordings contributed to her Mother! in my heart be written of a small circle. It is vocal chamber music, religious in being invited to sing in 1955 at the Chicago Opera. Elizabeth Hoengen Cordi meo valide. Deep as in thine own they be. inspiration. Pergolesi’s delicate, and in the main, rather is a Europe-wide favorite in opera, oratorio and lieder. This Vanguard Quality Control recording is guaranteed to be identical Tui nati vulnerari Thou, my Saviour’s cross who bearest informal approach is fortunately free of the odor of sanctity in sound to the original master tapes from which it was made. Every which sometimes hangs-like a heavy perfume over more subtle nuance of the original performance has been captured to enhance Tam dignati pro me pati Thou, thy Son’s rebuke who sharest ambitiously conceived settings of this text. Actually Per- your listening pleasure. The recording sessions took place at the Poenas mecum divide. Musikverein, in Vienna, world-renowned for its superb acoustical char- Let me share them both with thee! golesi is in essence a composer of opera, and not of gran- acteristics. Ampex model 300 magnetic tape recorders in conjunction Fac me vere tecum flere In the Passion of my Maker > diose opera seria in which he worked with no conspicuous with Altec and Siemens AKG C-12 condenser microphones were utilized success. It was a light opera, La Serva Padrona, which to produce the original masters which embody a frequency response Crucifixo condolere, Be my sinful soul partaker, covering the entire range of human hearing and embrace the full gamut subsequently threw all Paris into an uproar and assured for of orchestral and vocal sonorities. Donec ego vixero. Weep till death, and weep with thee. Pergolesi (many years dead at the time) a permanent place Juxta crucem tecum stare Mine with thee be that sad station in every textbook on music history. And there are turns Rossi and Stich-Randall on Vanguard Records Te libenter sociare of phrase in La Serva Padrona which appear to startlingly There to watch the great Salvation 4 dissimilar text in the Stabat Mater. The relationship be- PROKOFIEV: ALEXANDER NEVSKY CANTATA, Orchestra, Chor- In planctu desidero. Wrought upon th’atoning Tree. tween the two did not escape notice or censure. In Italy, us, Ana Maria Iriarte, soprano; Mario Rossi, conductor. Virgo virginum praeclara Virgin, thou of virgins fairest, Padre Martini (who numbered Gluck, Mozart, Gretry and Le ee ee VRS-451 Mihi jam non sis amara Jommelli among his pupils) was considerably irritated by “An unqualified triumph for everyone concerned .. May the bitter woe thou bearest the Stabat Mater which, in the main, struck him as the The sound is of extraordinary realism. Rossi produces a Fac me tecum plangere. Make on me impression deep. work of an opera buffo composer, often indistinguishable most dynamic reading.” High Fidelity 10. Aria, alto in style from La Serva Padrona. And in Germany, J. N. ROSSINI: SEVEN GREAT OVERTURES. Mario Rossi, conduct Fac ut portem Christi mortem Thus Christ’s dying may I carry Forkel, the distinguished 18th century theorist and historian, Ve a a tes OM one eae VRS-456 denounced the Pergolesi work as hypocrisy. This vehemence “Rossi has a sure hand for the idiom.” Kolodin, Satur- Passionis fac consortem With Him in His Passion tarry is understandable since it is in essence an argument over day Review Et plagas recolere, And His wounds in memory keep. what is holy. The argument is in place for people who have STRAVINSKY: LES NOCES and L’HISTOIRE DU SOLDAT. Mario Fac me plagis vulnerari, May His wounds transfix me wholly unalterable convictions in such matters; but-it does no Ross GOnGuclor, lt! 6..0 eee eS ae VRS-452 Cruce hac inebriari, May His Cross and life blood holy good to confuse it with historical fact. The secularism of “The performance is a splendid one.” The New Records much of 18th century’ church music, which Pergolesi re- Ob amorem filii. Ebriate my heart and mind. flects as innocently as Haydn, is indisputable; and equally J. $. BACH: CANTATAS NOS. 78 and 106. Stich-Randall, 1]. Duet, soprano and alto indisputable is the fact that such strong secular musical Hermann, Dermota, Braun; Chorus and Orchestra, Pro- influences inhibited neither composer from the sincerest haska, conductog.