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Performance on 3: BBC SO/Minkowski

BBC SO/Minkowski

08/03/2010

BBC Radio 3 - Performance on 3, BBC SO/Minkowski

BBC SO under Mark Minkowski in Pergolesi's Stabat Mater and Stravinsky's Pulcinella.

With Martin Handley. BBC Symphony Orchestra under Mark Minkowski in Pergolesi's Stabat Mater and Stravinsky's ballet Pulcinella - a reworking of pieces by Pergolesi and others.

Presented by Martin Handley

The conductor Mark Minkowski places Stravinsky's neoclassical ballet score alongside one of the original masterpieces of Pergolesi. 

The impresario Serge Diaghilev suggested to Stravinsky, in exile in Switzerland during the period of the Russian Civil War, that he should arrange a group of 18 'Pergolesi' pieces retrieved from the Conservatory library in Naples. Over half of the works turned out to be by other composers. Whatever the identity of the original authors, Stravinsky warmed to his task after seeing the scores and produced a scintillating ballet. The plot centres round the wily Pulcinella and his jealous girlfriend, Pimpinella with all the usual twists and turns associated with the Italian commedia dell'arte figures. 

The real Pergolesi, like Stravinsky, enjoyed international fame during his lifetime. His success was partly due to his comic operas, but not least thanks to the impassioned music of his Stabat Mater, which was still widely performed after his death and remains as popular today. Commissioned for Good Friday by the monastery near Naples where he had been residing for his health, it was one of his last works before his death, aged 26. 

Pergolesi: Stabat Mater 
Stravinsky: Pulcinella (complete ballet)

Marita Solberg (soprano)
Natalie Stutzmann (mezzo-soprano)
Julien Behr (tenor)
Matthew Rose (bass)
BBC Symphony Orchestra
conductor Marc Minkowski

Followed by a week-long focus on Baroque and Baroque-inspired organ music from the BBC Archive and European recitals:

Buxtehude: Chorale preludes: 	
Gott der Vater wohn uns bei (BuxWV.190);
Komm heiliger Geist, Herre Gott (BuxWV.199)
Bach: Sonata no. 6 in G, BWV.530 
Peter Hurford (organ)
St Catherineâs College, Cambridge 
BBC Recording, 1996

Mendelssohn: Sonata Op.65 no 3	  
Susan Landale (organ)
Organ of St James' Basilica, Prague
EBU recording, 2009

Schumann: Fugue on B-A-C-H (no.6: Massig)Simon Preston (organ) 
Royal Albert Hall
SIGNUM SIGCD 084   

Brahms: Fugue in A flat minor	 
David Sanger (organ) 
Bromley Parish church
BBC Recording, 1992

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