Sometimes two voices say more than an orchestra of a hundred. In Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, the soprano Julia Lezhneva and countertenor Maarten Engeltjes meet among the most poignant pages of music literature. Their contrasting but perfectly complementary timbres – Lezhneva’s radiant clarity and Engeltjes’ warm intensity – dig into the deeper layers of meaning in this universal story of loss, comfort and hope. With Engeltjes’ baroque orchestra, PRJCT Amsterdam, this music gets the direct, sophisticated elegance it deserves. Extra delights come in the form of Vivaldi’s explosive motet In furore iustissimae irae and the equally iconic Cum dederit from Nisi Dominus: an ebb and flow of ecstatic virtuosity and contemplative beauty.
Program
A. Vivaldi: In furore iustissimae irae, RV 626 | Cum dederit from Nisi Dominus, RV 608 | G.B. Pergolesi: Stabat Mater
Performers
Julia Lezhneva, soprano | Maarten Engeltjes, countertenor | PRJCT Amsterdam
