Giovanni Battista Pergolesi
The Stabat mater, one of the most remarkable works of sacred music, masks the
entire musical output of this composer, who was cut down in his prime at the age
of 26. Giovanni Battista Pergolesi or Jean-Baptiste Pergolesi, whose real name
was Draghi, was the son of an agronomist from Pergola, in the Marche region. He
was born several miles away in Jesi, in the province of Ancona, on January 4,
1710. The only child in a family that had lost all three of its siblings at an
early age, he suffered from poor health, but showed an early aptitude for music,
and began learning theory with...
