Prayer and Supplication

Anna Netrebko sang Pergolesi's Stabat mater

The Philharmonic subscription "Oratorios and Cantatas" looks modest: only three concerts (October, February, March), dedicated to the music of Baroque and Classicism and its heroes - the German Johann Sebastian Bach ("Christmas Oratorio" is promised under the baton of the Dutch expert on ancient music Ton Koopman ), the Austrian Joseph Haydn (authentic singers from different countries will come to sing his works) and the Italian Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, whose famous composition Stabat mater (1735) opened the cycle.

The cantata Stabat mater dolorosa (“Standing the Grieving Mother”) to an anonymous Catholic hymn of the 18th century was composed by Pergolesi when he was already the author of operas, including the famous interlude “The Maid-Mistress” (1733), considered the beginning of the Italian buffa. Written in close proximity to the Neapolitan dialect comedies, Stabat mater is a spiritual cantata for a small cast (chamber orchestra and two solo voices), where the most dramatic situation in human history is shown with disarming simplicity: the Mother of God mourns her crucified Son. Beautiful, luminous music requires special sensitivity from performers - a kind of renunciation, anonymity: the musician here is not a character, but a mediator between earth and heaven, his mission is sacred - purification and elevation. However, this mission is unlikely to be up to the task of an opera diva, whose name symbolizes secularism.

Anna Netrebko making her debut in Baroque music is a situation with a foregone conclusion. The manner developed over several years of a brilliant career - to sing in order to please, to sing in order to seduce, a priori excludes close contact with Baroque music, which presupposes the exact opposite, a different way of physical existence: instrumental technique, vocal manner of singing, detailed articulation and a state of anonymous chastity. The main thing in it is not even the work, but the state of sublime concentration that is achieved during its performance. To expect this to happen when Anna Netrebko appears on stage means not to understand either the nature of this music or the nature of the singer, which cannot be changed. Anna Netrebko appeared in her usual status - a star caressed by fame, who sings with all the power of passion, causing a fiery response from the audience. Openness, pathos and a frantic desire to be heard - everything that Netrebko, without sparing herself, put into Stabat mater, would have been very suitable for Verdi, and Verdi in a concert performance - the performance requires a different depth. In the case of Pergolesi, although an opera composer, but still an author of the Baroque era, it looked as if Netrebko was throwing down a challenge, wanting to make a spectacular public act out of an intimate inner experience, a plea for the impossible - the transformation of the sacred into the pathos.

Ekaterina Semenchuk, on the contrary, tried to restrain her big operatic voice, likening singing to prayer. In those moments when she had a solo, where there was a minimum of instrumental accompaniment, Semenchuk succeeded, despite the fact that you cannot defeat the nature of the voice. And while her passionate partner was resting after her ecstatic calls to the audience, Semenchuk restored the balance, reminding us that we were not listening to an opera-gala concert, but to strict church music. And the chamber ensemble “Moscow Soloists” under the direction of Michael Güttler, despite its lack of involvement in the authentic style of playing, tried to move in the right direction.

Marina BORISOVA