Giovanni Battista Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater (1736) has passed the test of time, so ungenerous to many other masterpieces of the Italian Baroque, in a completely unique way. From its origins, and long before the upheaval wrought in the musical world by early music enthusiasts, this composition has enjoyed everlasting success.

Until the French Revolution, it was performed during the famous Parisian concerts spirituels, while throughout the 19th century, it was also present both in the commentaries of experts and in the concert use. Then came a return to the sources and these were most fully explored by Vincent Dumestre with his ensemble Le Poème Harmonique. In addition to using historic instrumentation and playing techniques, he decided to reconstruct the context of the first Neapolitan performances of Stabat Mater. They were as distant as possible from those we normally listen to in the comfort of a concert hall. They were part of one of the great religious processions typical for Naples: the one organised on the occasion of the Feast of the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary, celebrated at the time on the Friday before Palm Sunday. It took place in the extremely bustling atmosphere of the city with the participation of masses of the faithful. Pergolesi’s piece was intertwined with simpler, choral arrangements of Stabat Mater sung by the fraternities and – rather unexpectedly for us today in this context – folk tarantellas.