
Not having any Giovanni Pergolesi in my collection, it seemed almost a no-brainer to try the new budget three disc set of Pergolesi’s music conducted by Claudio Abbado. The set comprises all three recent releases by the now aged maestro and the Orchestra Mozart, yet another new, young (and period) ensemble he has helped to build. The works included in the set are all liturgical, save the Violin Concerto with Giuliano Carmignola as the soloist. The set opens with a very nice Stabat Mater. There’s much to enjoy in this Baroque meets Classical work, but I have to say it just didn’t catch my fancy like, say, Szymanowski’s Stabat Mater. The Violin Concerto follows, and it, too, is a nice enough work. The first of three (!) Salve Reginas concludes the first disc, and again, it’s quite pleasant. Nothing earth-shaking, nothing profound.
Then I listened to the second disc. It opens with a brilliant missa brevis, the Missa S. Emidio, inspired by, apparently, a trembler that struck Naples. It’s a corker! Though written around the time Haydn was born, it sounds like a prototype for all Classical era liturgical works, only it’s better than more than a few similar works. The melodies are captivating from start to finish, the use of the larger forces compelling as can be. Though short, it packs a wallop. It’s much my favorite work in the set. It even sounds in parts like it inspired Mozart, by which I mean it sounds like Mozart may have stole some ideas. The second Salve Regina follows, with Sara Mingardo the soloist, and it is in a different category than the first one. The music is more compelling and the soloist a bit better. A couple lesser works fill out the disc, though they are both executed in most musical fashion.
The third disc is much like the first in that it has multiple liturgical works, and most of them are quite nice, if not especially noteworthy. The concluding Dixit Dominus is, for me, the best of the lot.
So, a nice enough mixed bag, with two fine works, one of them a great, or near great work. Abbado and crew all perform quite well, which is no surprise, and the sound quality is high grade indeed. All this and it comes in DG’s new, lush Prestige Edition packaging, for those who care about such things.