Editorial Reviews

Here's the concept: Charles de Brosses, an important figure in eighteenth century French cultural life, visits the kingdom of Naples in 1739 and, after investigating the art and examining the architecture, takes in a performance of Giovanni Battista Pergolesi's "Stabat Mater." This, however, is not just any performance of the "Stabat Mater": it is a procession, a celebration, a feast, and a festival of Stabat Maters. It starts with an intonation of the "Stabat Mater" chant, follows that with an anonymous Tarantella on the "Stabat Mater," an anonymous three-voice setting of the "Stabat Mater," an instrumental concerto by Francesco Durante that may or may not have anything to do with the "Stabat Mater," a plainchant hymn setting of the "Stabat Mater," and, finally, a climactic performance of Pergolesi's "Stabat Mater." As a concept, it's quite fascinating.

As a realization, it is absolutely enthralling from first note to last. Everything is ideally embodied in this performance with Olivier Schneebeli leading Les Pages & Les Chantres de la Chappelle and Le Poème Harmonique with soloists Patrizia Bovi, Pino de Vittorio, and Bernard Arrieta: the doleful fear of the opening intonation, the dreadful excitement of the Tarantella, the soulful austerity of the anonymous setting, the masterful intensity of the instrumental concerto, and the spiteful anguish of the plainchant culminating in a performance of Pergolesi's justly famous setting as passionately dramatic, as expressively emotional, as magnificently musical, and as spiritually overwhelming as the best ever recorded. Alpha's sound is utterly transparent and its production values are unsurpassed. James Leonard, All Music Guide

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