Here is a disc that can be passed over in less time than it takes to pass on the advice. Briefly, the orchestral sound is too thick and the soprano’s voice has too wide and uneven a vibrato. Restricting comparisons to two versions of the Stabat mater that have women soloists in both parts, one finds both generally preferable to this. Harnoncourt’s, certainly, is a very personal, idiosyncratic reading, full of consciously deliberated inflexions; yet it also observes speed-markings more faithfully (a genuine Grave for the opening movement) and exercises a far stronger visual imagination (the four detached falling notes are terse, the heavy dotted rhythm of “Fac ut portem”, a journey of affliction along the Via Crucis). Muti shows only occasionally a comparable insight or personal involvement, his rather fiercely dramatic propulsion of the “Pro peccatis” being the most striking instance. But it is really the choice of soloists that most affects the outcome. Halasz scores here, with the excellent Julie Faulkner as his soprano, and Anna Gonda a well-matched mezzo. Frittoli’s is an opulent voice of fine quality, but the vibrato is disabling in this context. Antonacci does well, but in duet the voices achieve no satisfactory blend.
The two additional pieces similarly suffer from comparisons. Both are included with the fine recording of the Stabat mater by The King’s Consort, with Gillian Fisher and Michael Chance as soloists. In coelestibus regnis is a short allegro with Alleluia, and, well sung though it is by Antonacci, it makes a more graceful effect in the lighter, more transparent orchestral texture of Chance’s recording with Robert King. The Salve regina benefits greatly from Fisher’s pure and finely placed tone, and King puts much more rhythmic buoyancy into the second movement, “Ad te clamamus”, where Muti’s allegro is a rather staid courtly dance. As Francesco Degrada points out in his notes, this A minor Salve regina (which he has edited) bears a close resemblance to a setting by Pergolesi’s friend Francesco Feo. It may be worth reminding readers that that can also be heard pleasingly sung by Lina Maria Akerlund, along with the Pergolesi, in the Denon recording under Carlo Chiarappa (2/95, not currently available in the UK).'