Details
St George's Bristol
Great George Street
Bristol
BS1 5RR
England
Programme
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi – Stabat Mater
Antonio Vivaldi – Concerto Madrigalesco for strings & continuo in D minor, RV 129
Antonio Vivaldi – Salve Regina, RV 616
Antonio Vivaldi – Concerto 'Il gran Mogol', RV 431a
Antonio Vivaldi – Laudate pueri Dominum in C minor, RV 600
Performers
Elin Manahan Thomas – soprano
Robin Blaze – countertenor
Florilegium
Programme Note
The Italian composer Giovanni Battista Pergolesi only lived a short life – he died when he was 26 – but his Stabat Mater for two solo voices and strings has become one of the most beloved pieces of the baroque era – and a must-hear work in the period leading up to Easter. Setting a 13th century text that describes Mary’s grief at the foot of the cross, this 30 minute sequence of solos and duets is an exquisite musical expression of love, faith and suffering.
One of the world’s leading baroque ensembles, Florilegium, recorded Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater to great acclaim in 2009 with the same celebrated singers in this performance, Elin Manahan Thomas and Robin Blaze. In this programme specially assembled for St George’s, they also sing solo works by Vivaldi alongside Florilegium’s performance of two contrasting concertos by Venice’s ‘Red Priest’ – including the ‘gran Mogol’ flute concerto, only discovered as recently as 2010 in the archives of a Scottish nobleman killed at the Battle of Culloden in 1746.