Stabat Matar Archive

PERGOLESI: Stabat Mater; BACH: Cantatas 54 & 170 – La Nuova Musica/ David Bates, Lucy Crowe (sop.), Tim Mead (ten.) – Harmonia Mundi

by Audiophile Audition | Apr 30, 2017 | Classical CD Reviews

A vivid and breathtaking rendition of Pergolesi’s masterpiece strangely saddled between Bach canatas. PERGOLESI: Stabat Mater; BACH: Cantatas 54 & 170 – La Nuova Musica dir. David Bates with Lucy Crowe and Tim Mead – Harmonia Mundi 907589 64:16 (5/5/17) ****: (Lucy Crowe: soprano/ Tim Mead: countertenor) Jean Jacques Rousseau, muddle-headed in so many of his opinions, had surprisingly good sense when it came to music, which was after all his true profession. He voiced an assessment of Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater that has held up well over the centuries, calling it “the most touching expression of sorrow to come from the pen of any composer.” This was, however, already a conventional opinion by this time. Charles Burney writing a bit later in the century, extolled the Italian thus: “His clearness, simplicity, truth and sweetness of expression justly entitles him to supremacy over all his predecessors and contemporary rivals, and to a niche in the temple of Fame, among the great improvers of the art..” (Burney: A General History of Music) It is all the more remarkable that Pergolesi attained this eminence in the 18th century, having expired at the tender age of 26. Whereas Schubert reached the the age of […]