Edward Higginbottom - Pergolesi: Marian Vespers (2003)

This Erato release attempts to introduce the listener to various aspects, some perhaps neglected, of Pergolesi's work. Such an attempt would be quite laudable, Pergolesi mainly being known for his Stabat Mater and the brilliant intermezzo La serva padrona, were not Pergolesi: Marian Vespers, a random sequence of disparate vocal and instrumental works, simply don't add up to Vespers. And the performers; soloists; the New College Choir, Oxford; and the Academy of Ancient Music, under the direction of Edward Higginbottom, seem unsettled by their task, often lapsing into a type of well-polished monotony. It should be pointed out that the service of Vespers, the seventh of the eight daily services of the Divine Office, follows a distinct pattern (which this set does not observe) and includes psalms, antiphons, settings of biblical and other liturgical texts, as well as a setting of the Magnificat, the canticle of the Virgin ("My soul doth magnify the Lord"). Only the second disc contains Marian music, a passionate Magnificat and a luminous, soulful Salve Regina, these two gems unfortunately separated by a rather mediocre Sonata for cello and continuo. Rooted in the Baroque, Pergolesi (1710-1736) is among those rare composers who intuitively -- almost clairvoyantly -- grasped and expressed the new style, which would crystallize into classicism later in the century. Consequently, Pergolesi's music, particularly his sacred works, reveals a multifaceted genius reaching for a truly comprehensive musical idiom. Despite his genuine modernity, Pergolesi, as exemplified by his Salve Regina, embodies a quintessentially Baroque spirituality that introduced elements of ecstatic passion and mystical vastness into Marian devotion. The music, which can only be described as intimately sublime, truly inspires the two sopranos Sophie Daneman and Noemi Kiss, whose voices attain the expressive purity of authentic devotion. -- Zoran Minderovic