Recordings

Prime Rossini, this Stabat Mater was hugely popular during the composer’s lifetime and intermittently so ever after--the first season at Hollywood Bowl in 1922 featured a performance, for example. It also attracted criticism for being too operatic for the pious text, spiritually irrelevant if not blasphemous. British conductor Creed accepts the work on its own terms, tracking its emotional trajectories with a fine ear for dramatic accent and pacing. His choir sings splendidly, although the treble-dominated balances turn the final fugue into a rather vaguely accompanied solo for the soprano section, and the period instrument orchestra plays with eloquent detail. The soloists work together nicely and cover the notes cleanly, with pliant, generally agreeable sound, except when strained by extreme range. But do you consider wide, unremitting vibrato the epitome of passion and depth of feeling, or a parody of it? The sopranos in particular make it sound as though there were a trill on every note; all have moments of almost comical flutter.