Adriana Kucerová (soprano), Terézia Kruzliaková (alto), L'udovit Ludha (tenor), Gustáv Belácek (bass), Lúcnica Chorus, Capella Istropolitana/Kirk Trevor Naxos 8.572371 ***

The Cimarosa known to modern ears is nearly but not quite a one-work composer, the man who wrote the opera Il matrimonio segretoand some concertos that wind players like to resurrect. But a Requiem by Cimarosa? Yes, and it's not the only one. The G minor Requiem was written in 1787 in St Petersburg. The composer had arrived as maestro di cappellato Catherine II, and found himself at short notice writing a Requiem to mark the death of the French ambassador's wife. The style of the music takes up somewhere after Pergolesi's Stabat Mater left off, though Cimarosa has four soloists and a chorus as opposed to Pergolesi's two soloists. The music's classical restraint is shorn in this otherwise sensitive performance by the riotously energised singing of the tenor, L'udovit Ludha.

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