For the first time with naïve, the countertenor Andreas Scholl joins the Accademia Bizantina and Alessandro Tampieri to present a Neapolitan programme, centred on the Virgin Mary.

Andreas Scholl and the Accademia Bizantina have for several decades enjoyed a successful musical partnership, encompassing the whole Baroque repertoire.

As usual, this new album together includes both renowned and less well-known vocal and instrumental pieces.

The figure of Mary, which has inspired a huge repertoire, both sacred and profane, runs through this Easter programme of exquisite affliction, virtuosic for both voice and orchestra.

“Neapolitan music has a unique melodic vein and a great capacity to communicate emotion profoundly,” says Alessandro Tampieri.

Thus, Vivaldi’s iconic Stabat Mater, which the German countertenor has enjoyed singing for many years, is placed alongside lesser-known airs from oratorios by Nicola Porpora and Leonardo Vinci, which had the character of the Virgin sung by a castrato.

“I endeavour to place humanity before gender,” says Andreas Scholl, “and I interpret the role of Mary with the greatest sincerity, without the slightest notion of ‘travesty’. Love, despair and pain transcend the notion of gender.”

We also find a Salve Regina by Pasquale Anfossi, requiring a particularly participative orchestra, a sonata by Angelo Ragazzi and a violin concerto by Pergolesi, both strongly echoing Pergolesi’s famous Stabat Mater.

The solo violin parts are played by Alessandro Tampieri, first violin of the Italian ensemble, who conducts here from his instrument in the purest tradition of the Baroque orchestra.