 Précède le Stabat un ensemble de quatuors joués, sur instruments d’époque, par l’ensemble Symposium, dont le second est, qui l’eût cru ? un Menuet, quelque peu morose en comparaison de son célèbre homologue, et dont le premier, Prestissimo, révèle une virtuosité certes attendue mais étourdissante de la part des interprètes. Le même ensemble accompagne la voix solo dans le Stabat Mater G 532, ou op. 61, dans sa version de 1781, établie par L.L. Sala (Bologne, 2016) au terme de recherches méritoires sur le parcours chaotique d’une œuvre aux multiples versions dues au compositeur lui-même et dispersées sur nombre d’années : un véritable jeu de piste ! Comme il faut s’y attendre dans le style Baroque, le rapport entre le texte de la musique ne ressort pas à l’évidence : le Tui nati vulnerati, par exemple, ou le juxta crucem fourmillent d’acrobaties vocales et de cascades instrumentales guillerettes incongrues dans ce genre d’inspiration, tandis que d’autres couplets, lugubres à souhait, nous ramènent dans le ton. Le solo est assuré par Francesca Boncompagni, lauréate de nombreux concours de chant baroque et membre d’ensembles prestigieux, gage de qualité. (Danielle Porte) Luigi Boccherini is best known for his delightful chamber music, such as the substantial collections of string quartets, quintets and guitar quintets. His vocal works, including two operas, two oratorios, three cantatas and more than a dozen concert arias, are essentially marginal to his output; though the Stabat mater of 1781, revised in 1800 from a soprano solo setting to one for three voices, is by no means untypical with its intimate mood, its sighing appoggiaturas, and the warmth and graceful pathos of the F minor trio movements which flank the 1800 version. Such features may also be seen as in a clear line of descent from Pergolesi’s Stabat mater. The Stabat Mater also includes certain features borrowed from earlier works such as the Quartet Op.2 No.1 of 1761, or the Quintet Op.29 No.6 of 1779. By the same token, Boccherini also stole from other works to write the Stabat Mater, including the Quartet Op.41 No.1 in C minor included on this album. Written in 1788, the quartet is structured as a cycle (Prestissimo – Tempo di Minuetto – Flebile – Prestissimo), and includes a melody in the minuet’s Trio that is distinctly reminiscent of the ‘Cujus animam’. Moreover, the Flebile reveals substantial borrowing from the final section of ‘Quando corpus morietur’. These connections with the Stabat Mater explain why the Quartet has been included in this recording. This album is the latest in a series of recordings for Brilliant Classics by the period-instrument group Ensemble Symposium, who have previously recorded chamber music by Telemann (BC94330), Campagnoli (BC95037) and the Op.26 String Quartets of Boccherini (BC95302), released earlier this year. ‘There are plenty of engaging features in this recording by Ensemble Symposium,’ reported Musicweb International of the Telemann Scherzi Musicali. ‘The playing is attractively textured, well-articulated and closely recorded.’
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