The Obsession series 2 (Giovanni Battista Pergolesi)

Music is the gift of Italy to the post medieval world. Good food, paintins, architecture are things she contributed to but not the sole benefactor. Music is. And Napoli was the king of Italian music after the great Venice felt around the times of early Vivaldi. And Napoli stayed the king until the Huns came after Verdi.

But what are the greatest characteristics of Neapolitan music? It is the natural voice-the one coming from the streets, kids singing down the alleys while playing, it is the street merchants trying to attract customers-it is the sound of the humans. No technicalities (although it was VERY easy for them to write and play them), not artificial parallel fugal segments. The music is best understood only if you follow the lyrics-or else it does not make such great sense.

During May 2024 I heard a lot of Pergolesi’s non-religious cantatas-specifically I liked a lot “questo a il piano”. But my heart was captivated by his religious (?) Confitebor tibi Domine. Dramatic changes-though not as dramatic as we find in Leonardo Leo’s Salve regina in F. It is definitely as interesting as the more interesting compositions by Bach-but it has a very engaging and lively perspective without enhanced repetitions as Bach would do. This version

with Philippe Jaroussky is good. Especially the last 3 minutes are very surprising and do a complete 180 degrees change.