Stabat Mater

Description

Longtime collaborators, Sandrine Piau and Christophe Rousset have performed this Stabat Mater, an emblematic work of the 18th-century Neapolitan repertoire, together and separately many times. Recording this grail of sacred music was therefore a natural choice for them. A more recent but regular collaborator with Les Talens Lyriques, American countertenor Christopher Lowrey (who can also be found on another Alpha disc dedicated to Monteverdi, Alpha 216) joined them. The program is completed by Beatus vir by Leonardo Leo (1694-1744) performed by Sandrine Piau and Salve Regina by Nicola Porpora (1686-1768) for alto, two completely unknown works by two very famous composers of the time, with Porpora having been, for example, Farinelli's singing teacher and Haydn's master... Christophe Rousset finds in this music "an expression of very southern, very spicy piety, where one quickly moves from tears to laughter." Sandrine Piau sees in Leo "an elegance of style, a certain distance in pain."