PERGOLESI'S EXQUISITE

STABAT MATER

February 27 – March 2

“I know of no music that, from beginning to end, has had the same emotional impact on me as Pergolesi’s."

The sentiment of those words, written by a contemporary of the composer, has been felt by centuries of admirers of one of the most moving and conflicting musical works born of the Baroque era.

Giovanni Pergolesi lived for only 26 years. A difficult and unhealthy childhood, followed by more illness and what some biographers claim was a young adulthood of profligacy, led to his early death. Yet in his precious last weeks of life, Pergolesi composed an enigmatically poignant setting of the Stabat Mater for soprano and alto that is known for its contrast of “tortured mysticism and fevered exaltation.” 

Blending operatic techniques with the spiritual narrative of the Virgin Mary’s grief during the crucifixion of her son, it evokes pathos, compassion, and a kind of exquisite exaltation that is rare in any era of music.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer who was a contemporary of Pergolesi, praised the opening movement as "the most perfect and touching duet to come from the pen of any composer." And the final duet rivals the most moving music found in any of Mozart’s operas.

This is an unspeakably beautiful composition, and it was so widely celebrated after the composer’s untimely death that a number of European composers did their best to circulate counterfeit compositions purported to be by Pergolesi. None, of course, came anywhere close to providing the emotional impact this great work has had on generations since.

Soprano Maya Kherani and mezzo-soprano Sarah Coit (recently heard at our “A Baroque New Year’s Eve at the Opera” concert in Herbst Theatre) will bring their dramatic and vocal artistry to our audiences next month at our concerts titled "The Harmonic Labyrinth."