Giovanni Battista Pergolesi
Stabat mater

Giuseppe Porsile
String Sinfonias

Performers
Renée Rybolt, Sorpano
Michael Skarke, Altus

Harmonia Stellarum Houston

Mario Aschauer, artistic director

Around 1700 Naples had come to be considered one of the most important musical capitals, as the many distinguished visitors to the city confirm. The music of Pergolesi, the most distinguished pupil from one of the city’s many conservatories, is among the earliest consistently to reflect the new principles of an evolving ‘natural’ or ‘galant’ style in the 18th century. It is spontaneous and fresh, often with a distinctive Neapolitan character tinged by a popular style, Spanish motifs and alternately comic, sentimental and heroic gestures. The Stabat mater, first published in London in 1749, became the most frequently printed single work in the 18th century. It was also circulated in many adaptations, including one by Bach (with the German text Tilge, Höchster, meine Sünden).

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