http://news.stanford.edu/news/2015/february/stabat-mater-memchu-022515.html
Very proud to see current and former 41 students Ethan, Shu Chen, and Danielle S in the Stanford Report today, preparing to perform the recently rediscovered “Stabat Mater” by early-18th-c Italian master Francesco Durante.
Neapolitan composer and teacher Durante taught Pergolesi, whose “Stabat Mater” for soprano, alto, and strings was one of the most durable and widely-circulated pieces of sacred music in mid-18th century. It was held up as an ideal of simple, unpretentious, and sincere religious and musical expression.
At the Haydn conference, Prof William Weber talked about the debates in 1760s Paris over whose “Stabat Mater” was superior – Pergolesi’s tender, small-scale and refined setting, or Haydn’s more grand and dramatic one.
How will Durante’s setting fit into that picture?
Music 41 