My post
has been updated with the addition of the first movement of Haydn’s Stabat Mater (Hob. XXa:1, 1768), which I had overlooked.
Haydn’s output of religious/sacred music was prodigious.
— Roger W. Smith
March 17, 2024
I saw a performance of Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater last night by Tenet Vocal Artists.
I am posting here the opening movements of four Stabat Maters I am familiar with:
Vivaldi, Stabat Mater RV 621 (1712)
Alessandro Scarlatti, Stabat Mater (1724)
Pergolesi, Stabat Mater (1736)
Haydn, Stabat Mater (Hob. XXa:1, 1768)
Dvořák, Stabat Mater (1880)
*****************************************************
For emotional power, for direct expression, it is hard to match Vivaldi, in my opinion.
Dvořák’s Stabat Mater has always affected me greatly since I first heard it, live (in rehearsal in a church in Paris) in 1972. It begins very differently than the other three posted here, with a long introduction before we hear the words
Stabat Mater dolorosa
iuxta Crucem lacrimosa,
dum pendebat Filius.
The opening chords convey magnificently the searing emotional pain of the grieving mother, witness to her son’s crucifixion.
*****************************************************
the liturgical text (PDF)
*****************************************************
the Biblical source
Matthew 27:55-56
The New Testament: A Translation, by David Bentley Hart
— posted by Roger W. Smith
March 10, 2024
