New light on Pergolesi! This album sheds light on a lesser-known aspect of the great Italian composer, offering two masterpieces in their first modern edition and first recording: the Mass in D major and the mottettone Dignas Laudes. Both editions are the outcome of recent musicological research carried out by the Centro Studi Pergolesi in Milan, and show a facet of Pergolesi his energetic and solemn character that complements and amplifies the dramatic and introspective moods of his most renowned sacred works. This Arcana release inaugurates a collaboration with the Ghislieri Choir & Consort and celebrates the fifteenth anniversary of the ensemble, which specialises in eighteenth-century sacred repertory and has already recorded works by Galuppi, Jommelli, Perez (Il Mattutino de Morti) and Handel (Handel in Rome 1707) for Sony-DHM. The soloists on this recording, conducted by Giulio Prandi, are the soprano Marlis Petersen, one of the leading sopranos on the international scene, and a quintet of young Italian singers who already perform in the most important and prestigious European venues.
