Скачать или смотреть Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710-1736): Cantata ¨Orfeo¨

00:00 Sinfonia
06:02 Recitativo: Nel chiuso centro
07:32 Aria: Euridice, e dove sei?
15:24 Recitativo: Sicchè pietà
17:18 Aria: O d´Euridice

Alfredo Bianchini, tenor / The Italian Chamber Orchestra - Newell Jenkins, conductor
Carlo Bussotti, harpsichord / Orfeo Giovannini, violoncello
Recorded in Italy, 1953

Rameau in his old age once said: ¨If I were twenty years younger I would go to Italy, take Pergolesi as my model, abandon some of my harmony and devote myself to attaining the truth of declamation which should be the only guide for musicians¨. Pergolesi on one side has been held up as the model Italian composer: the innovator, the blessed genius, the tragic youth who died at the early age of 26; and on the other side by those who claim that had he lived longer his fame would most certainly have been much less, that even his best works like the comic operas and the Stabat Mater are but weak in comparison with similar works by his contemporaries. The actual truth lies between both of these opinions. Today the intelligent music lover is more in a position to judge this matter for himself as the Opera Omnia of Pergolesi has been published (an inadequate and inaccurate publication to be sure), and a goodly cross section of Pergolesi’s output is available on records. Then one might ask, why the Cantata “Orfeo”? There are two excellent reasons: the cantata is one of Pergolesi’s finest works, unjustly neglected. Also, little of Pergolesi’s serious vocal music is well-known.

The-source for this performance is a manuscript score (as yet unmentioned either by Eitner or Dent) in the Pitti Collection of the Library of the Conservatory Luigi Cherubini at Florence. This score differs from the other known ones in the British Museum, in the Brussels Conservatory, the Prussian State Library, the Vienna Hofbibliothek, etc., in that it contains an introductory symphony. It is hard to say whether the introductory symphony is authentic or not as no autograph of the cantata exists. It is offered without any apology in this performance with the contention that it adds formalistically to the balance of the cantata. The work consists of an accompanied recitative, aria, secco recitative, and aria. The vocal part stands in soprano clef without any further indication. It was certainly sung by a castrato in Pergolesi’s time. The text being obviously meant for a man, it was decided to use a tenor for this performance.

Newell Jenkins