EO Recital: Stabat Mater by Scarlatti and Pergolesi

PIETRO ALESSANDRO GASPARE SCARLATTI (1660 - 1725)

Alessandro Scarlatti divided his career between Naples and Rome, where he received his training; a significant number of his works were composed for the papal city. He is often considered the most illustrious representative of the Neapolitan school of opera composers, since he brought the Italian dramatic tradition - begun by Monteverdi at the beginning of the 17th-century and continued by Cesti, Cavalli and Carissimi and Legrenzi - to its maximum development, designing the final form of the da capo aria, imitated throughout Europe. He was also the inventor of the Italian overture in three movements (which was of the highest importance in the development of the symphony), of the four-part sonata (progenitor of the modern string quartet) and of the technique of motivic development. Scarlatti also worked on all the other common genres of his time, from the sonata to the concerto grosso, from the motet to the mass, for the oratorio to the cantata, the latter being a genre in which he was an undisputed master. His contribution, his originality and his influence were essential, as well as lasting, both in Italy and in Europe.

Scarlatti’s Stabat Mater was composed for soprano and alto in 1724 on a commission from the Order of the Friars Minor (The Knights of the Virgin of Sorrows) of the Church of San Luigi in Naples, who subsequently commissioned Pergolesi’s work. Musicologists comment that this Stabat Mater impresses with its extraordinary musical richness, variety of forms, chromatic freedom, and flexibility of expression.

This Stabat Mater consists of eighteen pieces that can be grouped into four parts, starting, and ending with a duet. 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. That is eighteen numbers for twenty verses.

Stabat Mater dolorosa, a due – Adagio
Cujus animam gementem, soprano solo – Moderato e dolce
O quam tristis, mezzo solo – Poco andante
Quae moerebat et dolebat, a due – Adagio
Quis est homo, soprano solo – Andante
Quis non posset contritari, mezzo solo – Andantino
Pro peccatis suae gentis, soprano solo – Moderato
Vidit suum dulcem natum, a due – Moderato
Pia Mater, soprano solo – Andantino
Sancta Mater, mezzo solo – Andante moderato
Fac ut ardeat cor meum, soprano solo – Andante molto
Tui nati vulnerati, a due – Adagio
Juxta crucem, mezzo solo – Andante smorzato
Virgo virginum praeclara, soprano solo – Allegro
Fac ut portem Christi mortem, mezzo solo – Recitativo – Adagio e piano
Inflammatus et accensus, soprano solo – Andantino
Fac me cruce custodiri, mezzo solo – Recitativo – Largo
Quando corpus morietur, a due – Adagio e piano – Allegro