Wednesday 7 April 2010
Tune of the Day: Salve Regina
by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi
According to some scholars, the Salve Regina in C minor might be the last work written by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi. It has been said that had the Italian composer not died when he was only 26, he might have been as great a composer as Mozart.
Pergolesi's setting of this traditional Latin prayer is passionate, richly expressive, and yet somewhat dark. Indeed, the first of its six movements is a largo of exquisite beauty, a perfect illustration of a particular kind of baroque beauty, intensely expressive but at the same time seeming to hold back a freedom of lyricism.