I would like to write a post, at last, about my favourite ensemble playing Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater. It has been a long time (I think in 2006) since I visited  their performance for the first time.  Since then I have visited their concerts almost every year, in many churches all over the Netherlands, in the period around Easter. For years this project, titled the Pergolesi Ensemble, has been led by alto Marianne Selleger. By her side is singing Wendeline van Houten, soprano. The accompanying instrumental ensemble consists of saxophones in stead of strings! Apart from a few minimal adaptations, they remain true to the original composition by Pergolesi. And although, as I wrote in one of my lasts posts, Pergolesi  is the best known, most performed and most recorded one, I love this sax version very much. I love the ‘painful’ sound of the saxophones because they fit perfect with the grief of the poem. In 2009 I added their CD with Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater in 2009.
In 2020 the Pergolesi Ensemble is playing Pergolesi’s Stabat in Amsterdam, Austerlitz, Oosterleek, Hellendoorn, Zaltbommel, Bussloo en Diepenveen. More information on the website: http://www.pergolesi.nl.