Pergolesi: Cantate da camera, Op. 2 / Ensemble Concerto

The four cantatas by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi recorded here were published in Naples c. 1736. A short while later, perhaps 1738, a new edition of the cantatas was published. The fact that the two publications following in short succession testifies to the singular interest the chamber works of this very young composer from Jesi, who had died in 1736, aroused in Italian and European musical circles. For all, mention need only be made of the testimony of Charles de Brosses, who, in 1739, judged the fourth cantata of the collection as “the best of the Italian cantatas”.