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Depictions of anguish in music don't come much more beautiful than this. From the opening of Pergolesi's 40-minute Stabat Mater, where he pile-drives the dissonances to breaking-point, to the supplicatory duetting ending, this work keeps the emotional temperature at boiling point. (Perhaps not surprising, given that he was mortally ill at the time--he was only 26 when he died.) Robert King opts for a soprano and a countertenor (as opposed to two women's voices) and the contrast is very telling, with the warmth of Gillian Fisher's soprano rising gloriously against the metallic shimmer of Michael Chance's countertenor (still in its prime when this recording was made, in 1987). More highlights? Well it seems invidious to name them, but try track 4, which has a lyrical, doleful lilt to it, contrasting with the heart-stopping soprano introduction to the duet of track 5. Placed after the Stabat Mater it seems surprising that the A minor Salve Regina isn't better known--though on a much more modest scale, it is in its own way just as good a work, and Fisher sings it wonderfully well. The disc is completed by the brief, bright "In Coelestibus Regnis", with Chance in effulgent voice. The instrumental playing throughout is excellent, the notes are intelligent and informative, and the sound unobtrusively good. --
Harriet Smith