If we first introduced Valer Barna-Sabadus with a
solo CD in January, we can now present him in an
ensemble: with Pergolesi‘s Stabat Mater – sung by
two countertenors. Here is a brief explanation why
Michael Hofstetter decided on these forces:
“All the contemporary witnesses owed the deep impression
made on them by Pergolesi‘s church music to the singing
of castrati. As often and willingly as Stabat Mater is
sung and heard with women’s voices today, it was the
pure, ethereal voices of two castrati who first lent the
proper expression to the gallant pain of Pergolesi’s Passion
sequence. Michael Hofstetter and the two young singers
on this recording liberate his music from the cliché of a
thoroughly soft music of sentimental feelings. The vocal
lines come to life thanks to the typical manners of the
castrati: the short grace notes, slides, trills and the ‘messa
di voce’.” Dr. Karl Böhmer