Homage to Mozart: chamber music concert by Europa Galante conducted by Fabio Biondi, with Sandrine Piau soprano, Vivica Genaux mezzosoprano, Ian Bostridge tenor. The ensemble performs Neapolitan composer Francesco De Majos Oratorio Ges sotto il peso della croce, much beloved by Mozart (21.00).

The Accademia Nazionale di S. Cecilia will perform two concerts of sacred music at Romes Auditorium-Parco della Musica for the Easter period. First is an almost unknown work: the oratorio in two parts Ges sotto il peso della croce, written in 1764 by Gian Francesco De Majo (12 April). De Majo was an 18th century Neapolitan composer whose style is similar to that of Gluck, Bach and Mozart, with a melodic inventiveness that is lively as well as sweet and moving. Fabio Biondi conducts his instrumental group Europa Galante; the singers are soprano Roberta Invernizzi, mezzosoprano Lucia Cirillo and tenor Ian Bostridge. The other concert is Stabat Mater by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (21 April). Extremely well known, it is one of the greatest works of musica sacra, full of religious feeling and a spiritual testimony to its composer. In fact, Pergolesi finished it in 1736 in a Capuchin monastery at Pozzuoli, near Naples, where he had gone to be treated for tuberculosis and where he died at just 26. The concert will be performed by Le Pome Harmonique and by Les Pages & Les Chantres de la Chapelle. Paolo Di Nicola