Search - Franz Joseph Haydn, London Musici, Jeanette Ager :: Haydn: Stabat Mater

You'll Hear Echoes...

Giordano Bruno | Wherever I am, I am. | 03/03/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"... of all the earlier masterful Baroque settings of the Stabat Mater - by Vivaldi, both Scarlattis, Pergolesi, Bononcini, and Boccherini - in this imperial Stabat Mater by Joseph Haydn. Rightly known more for his symphonies and quartets than for his vocal music, Haydn composed this Stabat on a large orchestral plan, and it's the orchestral music that excels. Honestly, the dolorous intimacy of the earlier settings - the empathy for suffering - is absent from Haydn's grand and stately declamation of the Medieval Latin poem about the agony of the Mother at the death of the Son. The religious sentiments of the late Enlightenment were more social than personal.



This is, to my ears anyway, the best overall musical account of Haydn's Stabat Mater, chiefly because the soloists sing with the most insight into the vocal styles of Haydn's era. There are the usual difficulties with the recording of a large choir, but this time at least the Christ Church Choir sounds human rather than electronic.



I'm making an effort to survey the best performances of Stabat Mater settings of the 18th Century. You'll find my recommendations in reviews of:

1. Vivaldi - Stabat Mater - Ensemble 415

2. A. Scarlatti - Stabat Mater - Il Seminario Musicale

3. Pergolesi - Stabat Mater - Il Seminario Musicale

4. Caldara - Stabat Mater - Aura Musicale & Coro della Radio Svizzera Italiana

5. Boccherini - Stabat Mater - Ensemble 415

6. Domenico Scarlatti - Concerto Italiano

7. Giovanni Felice Sances - Philippe Jaroussky with Ens. Artaserse (CD: Beata Vergine)



There is no very good recording of the Bononcini Stabat Mater available. Will somebody please step forth!"