Boccherini: Stabat mater / D'Astorga: Stabat mater

Susan Gritton, Sarah Fox (soprano), Susan Bickley (mezzo-soprano), Paul Agnew (tenor), Peter Harvey (bass) & The King's Consort, Robert King

Boccherini wrote very little vocal music; however he left two settings of the Stabat mater. He set it first in 1781 for solo soprano and strings and then in 1800 for two sopranos and tenor, and was clearly influenced by the hugely popular Pergolesi Stabat mater of 1736. There are many similarities in the notation and harmony—even the same key of F minor is used. The writing is of extraordinary individuality, seeming to come straight from the heart. Emanuele d’Astorga was one of the more colourful figures of early eighteenth-century music, his life the stuff of subject of legend as much as of fact. Over 150 chamber cantatas survive, but by far his most enduring work has proved to be this setting of the Stabat mater, his only known sacred composition. Throughout it we hear Astorga’s gift for writing warm melodies, typical of the Neapolitan style of the time, which movingly capture the melancholy of this most desolate of sacred texts.

D'Astorga:
 Stabat Mater

Boccherini:
 Stabat Mater (2nd version, 1800, for 3 soloists & string orchestra), Op. 61

"Heart-melting … full of grace and beauty"
BBC Music Magazine

"Remarkable and beautiful settings"
Gramophone Magazine