So dear to the heart of Christophe Rousset, the Neapolitan school is presented here through a “chosen snapshot” of the sacred Naples of the early 18th century , revealing itself through its most beautiful pages, emblematic or unpublished.
On record, Les Talens Lyriques had already offered a reference recording of the Stabat Mater by Pergolèse (1710-1736), in which purity and sensuality compete. Here they deliver a new version of this masterpiece of the repertoire, bringing together the two mixed voices of soprano Sandrine Piau and countertenor Christopher Lowrey. The lament of a mother, a very recurring theme in Baroque art, was so magnificently set to music that the work belongs to the artistic pantheon, and has been since its creation.
This hymn is joined by the discovery of two completely new scores: a Beatus vir qui timet by Leo for countertenor, as well as a Salve Regina by Porpora for soprano. Both great masters of Italian opera, Leonardo Leo (1694-1744) and Nicola Porpora (1686-1768), nonetheless left magnificent sacred pages, oratorios and motets. These two exhumed manuscripts, contemporary with Pergolesi's masterpiece, display great expressiveness, delicate but assertive.
