The notes to this release by the innovative French ensemble Le Poème Harmonique and its director Vincent Dumestre explain a good deal about its philosophy and genesis. But what they don't explain is why the recording, made in 2000, took until late 2015 to be released. Possibly it was just the sheer novelty of the thing: the title Pergolesi: Stabat Mater; Marian Music from Naples fails to communicate what's going on here and how unusual it is. Briefly, Dumestre and his musicians investigate the links between Pergolesi's ...
Read More
The notes to this release by the innovative French ensemble Le Poème Harmonique and its director Vincent Dumestre explain a good deal about its philosophy and genesis. But what they don't explain is why the recording, made in 2000, took until late 2015 to be released. Possibly it was just the sheer novelty of the thing: the title Pergolesi: Stabat Mater; Marian Music from Naples fails to communicate what's going on here and how unusual it is. Briefly, Dumestre and his musicians investigate the links between Pergolesi's style and the popular music that surrounded it in Naples. This is not in itself a completely new idea, but the situation in Naples was especially interesting in at least two respects. The traditions investigated here continue to the present day, for one thing, in the performance of the Stabat Mater melody in improvised polyphony heard in village processions in some parts of modern Italy. For another, these traditions were sometimes notated, and you get a sample of what they sounded like...
Read Less