A project paying tribute to 18th century composer Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710 – 1736), Il Pergolese presents new arrangements and improvisation inspired by opera and sacred music. Singer Maria Pia De Vito, pianist François Couturier, cellist Anja Lechner and percussionist Michele Rabbia also consider Pergolesi’s relationship to the art music and the popular music of Naples from a contemporary perspective,. The text of the Stabat Mater – translated into Neapolitan by Maria Pia De Vito – and the opera arias, are transformed into songs and vivid narrative, open frames providing the key to reinterpreting Pergolesi. François Couturier's arrangements widen Pergolesi's structures, offering space for much improvisational interaction. For Il Pergolese is a real group project with creative from all partucipants, a discourse among sounds with rhythms generated by drums and metals and sampled and real-time electronics. “Sound textures grow dense with the richness of instrumental counterpoint or are set free in electronic soundscapes and along coloristic, percussive lines, as cello becomes voice or voice becomes an instrument” says Maria Pia De Vito in a performer’s note in the CD booklet.

PERSONNEL:

MARIA PIA De VITO, voice
FRANÇOIS COUTURIER, piano
ANJA LECHNER, violoncello
MICHELE RABBIA, percussion, electronics

Recorded December 2012 at Auditorio Radiotelevisione svizzera, Lugano

TRACKS:

01. Ogne pena cchiù spietata
02. Amen / Ut Portem
03. Sinfonia for violoncello
04. Chi disse ca la femmena
05. Tre giorni son che Nina
06. Fremente
07. In compagnia d'amore I
08. In compagnia d'amore II 9 Dolente