Vivaldi and Pergolesi – Stabat Mater

The composition of the Stabat Mater was commissioned to Pergolesi probably in 1734 by the lay Neapolitan confraternity of the Knights of the Virgin of Sorrows of San Luigi al Palazzo with the aim of replacing that of Alessandro Scarlatti until then in use. Legend has it that the Stabat, unanimously considered the masterpiece of the great composer from Jesi, was completed at the Convent of the Capuchins of Pozzuoli on the very day of his death in 1736 (at only 26 years of age, hence the nickname Raphael of Music). If this legend corresponds or not to the reality of the facts is of little interest: what is more surprising is the extraordinary expressive power of the music in front of its constructive simplicity. The sensation one has while listening to the piece is the spontaneous flow of its intense drama: it is just this detail of the genius of Jesi to give him the full right to occupy the same seat of a musical divinity such as Mozart. Both young and both irremediably condemned to death, they continue to impose on us – with the Italian Stabat and the famous Austrian Requiem – the most tragic of all tragic metaphysical questions: how powerful is the pain of Man?

Vivaldi’s Stabat RV 621, written in 1712, took a different path. While Pergolesi’s composition of the same name immediately began to walk on its own and to acquire the title of “repertoire” piece, that of the Venetian fell, after the death of the author, into the darkest oblivion (like most of his compositions, on the other hand). Its rebirth is due to the untiring research work of Alfredo Casella, who conducted it in Siena for the first time in 1939. Since then, the Stabat RV 621 has entered the stable repertoire of sacred music concerts and this despite a certain compositional “haste”: the parts for the strings are simple, the theme of the first movement is repeated in the next two and only half of the hymn has been set to music. Nevertheless, even though it is a youthful work with all the limits of the case, the piece is appreciated for the treatment of the contralto’s voice characterized by an innovative dialogic technique with the orchestra that foreshadows the masterpieces of what is rightly considered the greatest Italian composer of the early eighteenth century.

Pier Giorgio Dionisi, Conductor/Conductor
Elena Memoli, Soprano
Michela Rago, Mezzo-soprano
&
Chamber Orchestra City of Naples

Venue: Complesso Monumentale Donnaregina – Museo Diocesano Napoli, Largo Donnaregina, Naples, NA, Italy
Date: October 31, 2021
Start: 20:30
Admission: €20 – €40

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