Edizione critica a cura di Claudio Toscani-EDIZIONE NAZIONALE DELLE OPERE DI GIOVANNI BATTISTA PERGOLESI (Casa Ricordi in collaborazione con la Fondazione Pergolesi Spontini di Jesi) Based on the anonymous recasting of a libretto derived in turn from La fede tradita e vendicata by Francesco Silvani (1705) Il prigionier superbo by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi was first performed on 5 September 1733 at the Teatro di San Bartolomeo in Naples. With this opera ? his second dramma serio for San Bartolomeo in less than two years ? the young composer (who had already acquired considerable professional stature in the city?s theatres churches and aristocratic circles) reprised a perennially popular subject centered aroundthe dramatic conflict between filial piety and devotion to one?s betrothed. Inserted between the opera?s three acts were the intermezzi of La serva padrona which would soon go on to take all of Europe by storm. The primary source for this edition is a manuscript copy of the score currently housed in the Conservatorio di Musica ?San Pietro a Majella? in Naples and prepared by Giuseppe Sigismondo who was quite probably working from the now-lost autograph. Two other significant manuscript copies of the score also housed in Naples (respectively in the Biblioteca Oratoriana dei Girolamini and the aforementioned conservatory) were consulted along with a number of manuscript copies of individual arias. The edition is furnished with a historical introduction which traces the libretto?s complicated literary lineage and illustrates the circumstances of the opera?s commission genesis premiere and subsequent history: and a critical apparatus containing detailed source descriptions and critical notes for both the text and the music. An earlier version of the last movement of the Sinfonia and an aria for the third act whose text does not appear in the original printed libretto are provided as appendices.

There is no rose of such virtue is an anonymous mediaeval text, already well known through beautiful settings by Britten (in his Ceremony of Carols), John Joubert and others. The poem is 'macaronic' (it presents a verse in English, followed by a varying Latin refrain). This new version follows the illustrious examples above by remaining strophic and presenting broadly the same music in a succession of slightly different guises. The first verse is a straightforward four-part setting, the second gives the melody to the tenors and surrounds them with hushed, wordless writing for the other parts, and the third explores a freely canonic relationship between the tenor and soprano lines before carrying the previous verse-endings to a higher, more exalted pitch and mood. The fourth verse then expands its texture in a free climactic passage evoking the songs of praise sung by the angels. This subsides towards the final verse, where the texture of the music attenuates again to four parts, and canonic writing (based on the first four notes of the original melody) permeates all of them. This slightly extended statement leads to a hushed final cadence. Francis Pott (b. 1957) began musical life as a chorister at New College, Oxford. He held open music scholarships at Winchester College and at Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he studied composition with Robin Holloway and Hugh Wood while pursuing piano studies privately in London with the distinguished British artist, Hamish Milne. Throughout the 1990s Francis was John Bennett Lecturer in Music at St Hilda's College, Oxford, and a lay clerk in the Choir of Winchester Cathedral. In 2001 he became Head of London College of Music, University of West London, later leading research across the University's Faculty of Arts and acceding in 2007 to its first Chair in Composition. Francis Pott has become recognised particularly for his sacred choral and organ music. This has been performed in concert and on radio in over three dozen countries worldwide, published by four major UK houses and released extensively on CD. Winner of four national composition awards, in 1997 he received first prize in the piano solo section of the S. S. Prokofiev Composing Competition, Moscow. In 2006 and 2011 he was a nominated finalist in the BASCA/BBC Annual Composer Awards. In summer 2012 he was winner of the international composing competition of the Cheltenham Festival, which sought new piano variations on the arioso song Bist du bei mir, well known in the arrangement by J. S. Bach. Francis lives with his wife and two children on the outskirts of Winchester. An inspiring selection of new works from a range of contemporary composers, the Novello New Choral Series offers pieces for all types of choirs, including sacred and secular works from simple, four-part settings to more expansive, yet accessible, repertoire in an exciting variety of styles. / Choeur Mixte (SATB)

Helen Grime wrote this Christmas carol for the Hallé Youth Choir to sing at the close of 2013. The words are from an anonymous medieval cradle song.Grime said of the piece: ?I haven?t written muchchoral music before so it?s really exciting for me. And I know they?re an absolutely fabulous choir. I wanted to write something quite simple in structure and clear in meaning.?