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Cecilia Bartoli continues her exploration of Steffanis music by championing his last and greatest masterpiece her first Stabat Mater since the best-selling Pergolesi . Cecilia Bartolis exploration of the music of Steffani continues on from her best-selling Mission with an album of the celebrated Stabat Mater alongside Steffanis greatest sacred works for chorus, orchestra and soloists, constituting the most comprehensive collection of Steffanis sacred choral music on CD. Bartoli leads an array of internationally celebrated singers including countertenor Franco Fagioli, the bass Salvo Vitale and the two young German tenors Daniel Behle and Julian Pregardian. Diego Fasolis conducts the authentic instrument forces of I Barocchisti and the chorus of RSI Lugano. Steffanis Stabat Mater is his masterpiece, completed shortly before he died in 1728. It has been described as the most powerful expression of his religious fervour and, at almost half an hour, the largest-scale, most complex and heartfelt of his compositions outside his operas. The opening solo Stabat Mater dolorosa featured on the Mission DVD. The album is completed by six world premiere s of the best of Steffanis remaining sacred music, including Sperate in Deo and Laudate Pueri. These are scored for orchestra, chorus and soloists featuring two young baroque-spet sopranos Nuria Rial and Yetzabel Arias Fernandez alongside Behle, Pregardien and Vitale. Also amongst these world premieres is Non plus me Ligate, a seven-minute solo motet for Cecilia Bartoli. Released in the same month is an album of Steffanis greatest orchestral music Ouvertures et Danzes with Diego Fasolis and I Barocchisti. Review ------ La Bartoli sings as enthrallingly as ever, and with this new CD reasserts her place as No.1 in the international diva firmament. --Financial Times Germany