With a disc entitled Stabat Mater and featuring Pergolesi among the composers, it would be natural to expect his setting of this heartfelt meditation on the grief of the Virgin Mary to be included in the programme. Well, it isn’t – and it is! Only a few years after Pergolesi in 1736 had composed his Stabat Mater, JS Bach made an adaptation of it using a contemporary German version of the biblical Psalm 51. To suit the requirements of the new text Bach made certain alterations to Pergolesi’s vocal parts, but retained the scheme of solo arias and duets between a soprano and an alto voice. He also added a new, independent viola part to the score and rewrote the basso continuo, giving the work a new harmonic vitality.

This exciting programme is presented by Emma Kirkby and London Baroque, household names in the sphere of ‘early music’ and beyond, and certainly no new-comers to the works of Handel. Indeed, when they last joined forces in a GF Handel programme the website MusicWeb International called the performances ones that "make one wish that all Handel music making could be of this order", while the reviewer in BBC Music Magazine wrote "I've seldom been as moved by a recording, both music and performance".