The text, the Stabat Mater sequence, is a 13th-century liturgical text meditating on the suffering of Mary, mother of Christ.
Considered outdated by those who had ordered it, Scarlatti's work was replaced in 1736 by the famous Stabat Mater by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi.
Scarlatti set the Stabat Mater three times. There is another manuscript of a three-part Stabat Mater, dated 1715 and kept in Naples[2][3] (Stabat Mater [II])[4] and a third work, composed for four voices, dated 1723, but now lost[3] (Stabat Mater [III]).
Description
First page of the Stabat Mater in a copy from the 18th century, kept in Florence at the Conservatorio Luigi Cherubini
The Stabat Mater consists of eighteen pieces that can be grouped into four parts, starting and ending with a duet.[5]
Scarlatti inverts verses 10 and 11 and groups verse 13 with verse 14, and verse 15 also plays verses 16 and 17 in a recitative.[6] That is eighteen numbers for twenty verses.
Scarlatti's late composition impresses by its extraordinary musical richness, variety of forms, chromatic freedom and flexibility of expression. Thus the work is one of his most popular religious works today.[7]
A performance takes about forty minutes.
Stabat Mater dolorosa, a due – Adagio
Cujus animam gementem, canto solo – Moderato e dolce
O quam tristis, alto solo – Poco andante
Quae moerebat et dolebat, a due – Adagio
Quis est homo, canto solo – Andante
Quis non posset contritari, alto solo – Andantino
Pro peccatis suae gentis, canto solo – Moderato
Vidit suum dulcem natum, a due – Moderato
Pia Mater, canto solo – Andantino
Sancta Mater, alto solo – Andante moderato
Fac ut ardeat cor meum, canto solo – Andante molto
Tui nati vulnerati, a due – Adagio
Juxta crucem, alto solo – Andante smorzato
Virgo virginum praeclara, canto solo – Allegro
Fac ut portem Christi mortem, alto solo – Recitativo – Adagio e piano
Inflammatus et accensus, canto solo – Andantino
Fac me cruce custodiri, alto solo – Recitativo – Largo
Quando corpus morietur, a due – Adagio e piano – Allegro
^When it was released, this record was awarded a "10" by Laurent Campellone in the Répertoire des disques compacts [fr] N° 118, November 1998 p. 60–61.
^When it was released, this disc was distinguished with a Golden Diapason N° 469, April 2000 and a "recommended" in Classica.
Bibliography
Edwin Hanley (July 1953). "Alessandro Scarlatti – Stabat Mater by Alessandro Scarlatti; Rosanna Giancola; Miti Truccato-Pace; O. Scuola Veneziana, dir. Angelo Ephrikian". The Musical Quarterly. Vol. 39, no. 3. pp. 493–496. ISSN0027-4631. OCLC5556273550. enregistrement : OCLC:1007458967
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