Earpiece #23: Nathalie Stutzmann conducts Pergolesi’s “Stabat Mater” | EarRelevant

Mark Gresham | 4 JAN 2023

Earpiece is a series of audio and video presentations curated by EarRelevant’s publisher and principal writer Mark Gresham.

Born January 4, 1710, Giovanni Battista Pergolesi was an Italian Baroque composer, violinist, and organist. He primarily wrote operas and sacred music, and among his best-known works are a Stabat Mater and the opera La serva padrona (“The Mistress Servant”). Unfortunately, his creative life was cut short early. He died of tuberculosis at the age of 26.

In honor of Pergolesi’s birthday, we offer a video of his Stabat Mater, directed by Nathalie Stutzmann, who is now in the midst of her first season as music director of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Soprano Emöke Barath and countertenor Philippe Jaroussky join her and Orfeo 55 in this April 2014 concert at the Château de Fontainebleau, France.

The creation of the Orfeo 55 ensemble in 2009 was the fulfillment of Stutzmann’s long-time dream of leading her own chamber orchestra. An operatic contralto and promising guest conductor, the Orfeo 55 project synthesized those two facets of her professional career. ■

View the video below. Note: YouTube videos are embedded in accordance with the YouTube TOS.

VIDEO:

NATHALIE STUTZMANN CONDUCTS PERGOLESI’S STABAT MATER. Total duration: 39:21

PROGRAM:

PERGOLESI: Stabat Mater
Orfeo 55
Nathalie Stutzmann, director
Emöke Barath, soprano
Philippe Jaroussky, countertenor
Duration: 39:21
Video: Ozango / ARTE France (2014)

EXTERNAL LINKS

■ Nathalie Stutzmann: nathaliestutzmann.com

About the author:

Mark Gresham is publisher and principal writer of EarRelevant. He began writing as a music journalist over 30 years ago, but has been a composer of music much longer than that. He was the winner of an ASCAP/Deems Taylor Award for music journalism in 2003.

Read more by Mark Gresham.