Hyperion Records

Born near Ancona, Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (born Jesi 1710, died Pozzuoli 1736) was sent to Naples at the age of fifteen to complete his musical studies. He achieved unexpected fame, probably as a result of two of his works, the intermezzo La Serva Padrona and his Stabat mater; at his early death contemporaries believed that they had lost a genius. He belongs to the school of composers like Jommelli, Traetta, Vinci, Piccinni and Paisiello, all of whom studied with the master Durante and whose simplistic works became immensely popular with the mid-eighteenth-century public. The Flute Concerto represents one of the few examples of Pergolesi’s instrumental compositions—if, indeed, Pergolesi wrote the work; musical scholarship is uncertain about its origin. Its style and structure are still very close to those of the operatic stage.

from notes by Hyperion Records Ltd © 1988