Of the approximately 150 works circulating under Giovanni Battista Pergolesi's name, only about 30 are genuinely his; many were falsely attributed posthumously by publishers to boost sales.
Performer Biography
Riccardo Minasi, a violinist and conductor, was co-founder and conductor of Il Pomo d'Oro and was appointed chief conductor of the Mozarteumorchester of Salzburg in 2017.
Compositional Technique
The Neapolitan 'partimento' teaching method, which simplified basso continuo improvisation through tested models, influenced composers like Pergolesi and continued into the Viennese Classical period, even inspiring Mozart's musical dice game.
Interpretation
Ensemble Resonanz, though not a specialist early music group, recorded these works in a meantone temperament, which results in warmer, more radiant thirds and harsher dissonances compared to equal temperament.
Composer Biography
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, a composer, died of tuberculosis at the age of 26, only three years after his first major success with the opera intermezzo La serva padrona.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Pergolesi's music was praised for combining Baroque affects with a liberation from rigid structures, offering natural character delineation and vibrant, passionate music.
Recording & Production
Riccardo Minasi, the conductor, decided to use a 'false' version of Joan Rossell's Salve Regina for this recording, which was altered by publisher Robert Bremner in 1773 to sound more like Pergolesi.
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