Walter Meyer wrote:

>Vicente Vida wrote:
>
>>I have bought recently Pergolesi Stabat Mater (Scholl, Bonney, Rousset and
>>Les Talent Lyriques).  I think this version is excellent but would like to
>>know if there is another good one to compare.
>
>There's the one w/ Freni and Berganza and Ettore Gracis conducting the
>Solisti del' orchestra "Scarlatti" Napoli (London 433 478-2), and another
>w/Taylor, Ferrier, and Roy Henderson conducting the Nottingham Oriana Choir
>and the Boyd Neel String Orchestra (Arch 427 123-2).  (I try never to pass
>up a Kathleen Ferrier recording.)

Same here.  And indeed the Ferrier Stabat Mater is *very* moving.  It's so
very different from Scholl et al.  that it's hard to believe it's the same
music sometimes.  But when Ferrier sings a scale it is enough to have me
almost in tears ;) Come to think of it, while picking up one of the boxes
in the Kruidvat/Brillant Classics Bach edition recently, I also bought a
very cheap Pergolesi Stabat Mater which proved to be quite good too.  I
don't know any of the performers and indeed this might be a case of a
*ghost* cast.  In that case I wonder whether anybody on the list know who
this version is really by.  Here's the cast:  Angharyd Gruffyd Jones (that
must be a Welsh name) and Lawrence Zazzo are the singers, the conductor is
a man named Brown <g> and the orchestra is supposed to be an outift called
The Cambridge Ensemble.  To complete my activities regarding this piece I
taped a live performance by Andreas Scholl and soprano Elisabeth Scholl
(his sister? his mother? ;) and Gottfried von der Goltz conducting the
freiburg Baroque Orchestra.  Although not quite as riveting as Rousset's
with Scholl this is of course also a very good performance.

Philip