Giovanni Gualberto Brunetti
About the composer
Giovan Gualberto Brunetti (1706-1787) was born in Pistoia, Italy. Brunetti lived a large part of his life in Pisa, Italy, where he was director of music of the cathedral. Though he composed operas as well as other works he composed mainly for the church. According to the musicologist Paolo Peretti his Stabat Mater was more or less copied, in 1825, by Antonio Brunetti, probably a nephew of his, who changed some things, replaced three sections by his own and sold it as his own work: “Stabat Mater all’imitazione del’esimio Sig.Pergolesi”. From this we might conclude that in fact Giovanni Gualberto himself had already made an imitation of Pergolesi’s. Especially the first four parts have indeed a strong resemblance. Nevertheless, though Giovanni took Pergolesi’s as an example, his contribution to the music is such, that it surely can be regarded as a work of his own. In this respect it is interesting too, to notice that he used a different text than Pergolesi.
About the Stabat Mater
| Date: | 1764 |
| Performers: | Soprano, alto, choir and strings with organ |
| Length: | 48.13 minutes |
| Particulars: | The composition is divided into 13 parts, varying from 1 to 3 stanzas. An outstanding and unique feature is that the alto opens every part by singing the text in a "Gregorian" way, giving it a special flavour which I like very much. The third duet is interesting as each of the participants at the same time sings its own stanza. We find this also in Astorga's piece. The final choral "Amen" is a fugue, as so often in Stabat Maters from that era. |
| Textual variations: | The "Vatican"-version of the text is used, but with the following change: |
| Colour bar: |
|
Information about the recording
| CD1: | PAN Classics 510 077: G.G.Brunetti, Stabat Mater |
| More info: | The CD highlights the way in which Brunetti paraphrased the Pergolesi Stabat Mater. It also contains some plain chants, related to the same history. Recorded at the Altstetten Church in Zürich, July 1994. I bought this CD in a record shop in the Netherlands, 1997. |
| Orchestra: | Ensemble Turicum |
| Choir: | Ensemble Turicum |
| Soloists: | Elena Mosuc, soprano |
| Other works: | Plain chant: |
| Code: | 1997 (BRU 01) |
| CD2: | Stabat Mater 2009 (Stabat Mater Foundation) |
| More info: | The cd is a recording of a concert performed on March 29, 2009 in the St.Petrus church at Oirschot, published by the Dutch Stabat Mater Foundation. |
| Orchestra: | Combattimento Consort Amsterdam |
| Choir: | Capella Isalana |
| Conductor: | Jan Willem de Vriend |
| Soloists: | Elisabeth Scholl, Soprano and Mirjam Schreur, Alto |
| Other works: | Scarlatti: Stabat Mater |
| Code: | 2009 BRU 02 |
