Agostino Steffani - Stabat Mater

Cecilia Bartoli continues her exploration of Steffani s music by championing his last and greatest masterpiece her first Stabat Mater since the best-selling Pergolesi recording.
La Bartoli sings as enthrallingly as ever, and with this new CD reasserts her place as No.1 in the international diva firmament. - Financial Times Germany on Mission.
Cecilia Bartoli s exploration of the music of Steffani continues on from her best-selling recording Mission with an album of the celebrated Stabat Mater alongside Steffani s greatest sacred works for chorus, orchestra and soloists, constituting the most comprehensive collection of Steffani s sacred choral music on CD.
Bartoli leads an array of internationally celebrated singers including countertenor Franco Fagioli, the bass Salvo Vitale and the two young German tenors Daniel Behle and Julian Prégardien.
Diego Fasolis conducts the authentic instrument forces of I Barocchisti and the chorus of RSI Lugano.
Steffani s Stabat Mater is his masterpiece, completed shortly before he died in 1728. It has been described as the most powerful expression of his religious fervour and, at almost half an hour, the largest-scale, most complex and heartfelt of his compositions outside his operas. The opening solo Stabat Mater dolorosa featured on the Mission DVD.
The album is completed by six world premiere recordings of the best of Steffani s remaining sacred music, including Sperate in Deo and Laudate Pueri. These are scored for orchestra, chorus and soloists featuring two young baroque-specialist sopranos Nuria Rial and Yetzabel Arias Fernandez alongside Behle, Pregardien and Vitale.
Also amongst these world premieres is Non plus me Ligate, a seven-minute solo motet for Cecilia Bartoli.

1. Stabat Mater Dolorosa - Cecilia Bartoli, I Barocchisti, Diego Fasolis
2. Cuius animam gementem.... O quam tristis - Coro della Radiotelevisione Svizzera, Cecilia Bartoli, Franco Fagioli, Daniel Behle, I Barocchisti, Diego Fasolis
3. Quis est homo qui non fleret.... Quis non posset - Franco Fagioli, Daniel Behle, I Barocchisti, Diego Fasolis
4. Pro peccatis suae gentis - Coro della Radiotelevisione Svizzera, I Barocchisti, Diego Fasolis
5. Vidit suum dulcem Natum - Salvo Vitale, I Barocchisti, Diego Fasolis
6. Eja Mater, fons amoris... Fac, ut ardeat ... Sancta Mater... Tui nati vulnerati - Cecilia Bartoli, Franco Fagioli, Coro della Radiotelevisione Svizzera, Daniel Behle, Julian Prégardian, I Barocchisti, Diego Fasolis
7. Fac me vere tecum flere.... Juxta Crucem - Coro della Radiotelevisione Svizzera, Daniel Behle, I Barocchisti, Diego Fasolis
8. Virgo virginum praeclara - Daniel Behle, Julian Prégardian, Salvo Vitale, I Barocchisti, Diego Fasolis
9. Fac ut portem Christi mortem - Cecilia Bartoli, Franco Fagioli, Julian Prégardian, I Barocchisti, Diego Fasolis
10. Fac me plagis vulnerary - Coro della Radiotelevisione Svizzera, I Barocchisti, Diego Fasolis
11. Inflammatus e accensus.... Fac me cruce custodiri - Julian Prégardian, Daniel Behle, Salvo Vitale, I Barocchisti, Diego Fasolis
12. Quando corpus morietur... Fac ut animae donetur - Coro della Radiotelevisione Svizzera, I Barocchisti, Diego Fasolis
13. Beatus Vir - Coro della Radiotelevisione Svizzera, I Barocchisti, Diego Fasolis
14. Non Plus Me Ligate - Cecilia Bartoli, I Barocchisti, Diego Fasolis
15. Triduanas A Domino - Coro della Radiotelevisione Svizzera, I Barocchisti, Diego Fasolis
16. Laudate Pueri - Nuria Rial, Yetzabel Arias Fernandez, Coro della Radiotelevisione Svizzera, Salvo Vitale, Daniel Behle, Julian Prégardian, Franco Fagioli, I Barocchisti, Diego Fasolis
17. Sperate in Deo - Nuria Rial, Yetzabel Arias Fernandez, Salvo Vitale, Coro della Radiotelevisione Svizzera, Julian Prégardian, I Barocchisti, Diego Fasolis
18. Qui Diligit Mariam - Coro della Radiotelevisione Svizzera, Salvo Vitale, Cecilia Bartoli, Franco Fagioli, I Barocchisti, Diego Fasolis