Jory Vinikour O BARBARO AMORE

Jory Vinikour is an American harpsichordist and conductor. A Chicago native, Vinikour studied in Paris with Huguette Dreyfus and Kenneth Gilbert on a Fulbright scholarship. He was the winner of the 1993 Warsaw International Harpsichord Competition and the 1994 Prague Spring International Music Competition, and he has appeared as a guest performer at music festivals around the world. With a concerto repertoire ranging from Baroque to contemporary music, Vinikour has been a soloist with L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, the Cape Town Symphony Orchestra, the Moscow Chamber Orchestra, and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, working with Stéphane Denève, Martin Haselböck, Marek Janowski, Fabio Luisi, and Marc Minkowski, among many other conductors. Vinikour has performed as an accompanist for David Daniels, Hélène Delavault, Vivica Genaux, Marijana Mijanovic, Dorothea Röschmann, and Rolando Villazón, and he has toured Europe with Anne Sofie von Otter. Vinikour recorded a program of 17th century English and Italian music with lutenist Jakob Lindberg, which was released in 2005. A champion of new music, Vinikour has premiered works by Harold Meltzer, Frédéric Durieux, Stephen Blumberg, Patricia Morehead, and Graham Lynch, in addition to more established modern pieces by Cyril Scott, György Ligeti, and Michael Nyman. Vinikour has recorded for Sono Luminus, Dorian, Deutsche Grammophon, Affetto, Delos, Mandala, and Consonance.

Florilegium / Elin Manahan Thomas / Robin Blaze PERGOLESI Stabat Mater

As a composer Pergolesi’s productive career began at the age of twenty, and by twenty-six (March 1736) he had died of tuberculosis. During his lifetime Pergolesi’s fame was restricted, in the main, to Rome and Naples, yet after his death, his reputation eclipsed most other composers in the second half of the eighteenth century. The whole of Europe developed an increasing curiosity for his compositions. His posthumous celebrity status was such a magnet in the music world that, hoping to reap large financial profits, publishers and opera directors alike attributed his name to hundreds of vocal and instrumental works by lesser-known composers. Following Pergolesi’s death the Stabat Mater became one of the most celebrated and frequently printed works of the 18th century.

Welsh soprano Elin Manahan Thomas has a lovely, clear, pleasingly bright tone and all the right stuff for Pergolesi's most lyrical and lively lines; countertenor Robin Blaze never has sounded better, his timbre warmly resonant, his technique fluid and effortless, his intelligence and thoughtful interpretive manner on impressive display-and proving a perfect match for Thomas. And speaking of instruments, also to be commended are the Florilegium instrumental players, who include the group's director, flutist Ashley Solomon, and cellist Jennifer Morsches, both of whom offer excellent additions to the program-the delightful (if doubtfully by Pergolesi!) Flute Concerto in G major and the (authentic) Sinfonia in F major for cello and continuo. (…)
(…) Highly recommended (even if you already have one or two others!).
(Classics Today)