Stabat Mater, Opus 58 composed 1876-77
At a Glance Dvořák began writing his setting of the Stabat Mater in the first half of 1876, then set it aside for a time and returned to it a year later, completing the core in October-November 1877. The work was premiered on December 23, 1880, in Prague, conducted by Adolf Čech. This work runs about 85 minutes in performance. Dvořák scored it for an orchestra of 2 flutes, 2 oboes plus english horn, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons,
4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, organ or harmonium, timpani, and strings, plus four vocal soloists and mixed choir. The Cleveland Orchestra first presented Dvořák’s Stabat Mater in May 1919 at Finney Chapel in Oberlin. The work has been presented on two previous Severance Hall weekends, in 1980 under James Conlon’s direction, and in 1989 led by Helmuth Rilling.
by
Antonín
DVOŘÁK
About the Music
born September 8, 1841 Nelahozeves, Bohemia
D V O Ř Á K , L I K E H AY D N , was blessed with a simple and unshaken faith. He was not markedly devout, but the Catholic church played its traditional part at the crucial moments of his life, and, like Haydn, he wrote “Thanks be to God” at the end of most of his manuscripts. That Dvořák wrote three large sacred works across his lifetime — a Stabat Mater, a Requiem, and a Te Deum — does not itself prove his commitment to faith, but these works presented no obstacle of conscience (unlike some other composers’ wrestling with the depth of their faith directly in their own musical creations). In the case of the Stabat Mater, this work served as consolation and inspiration. Dvořák’s choral music also included some psalm settings and an oratorio on St. Ludmila with a strong religious background. Even so, in the latter part of his life Dvořák was more absorbed by folk culture and the traditional stories of Bohemia than in religion, and his music seemed, to pious Victorians for example, more distinctive for its exotic color than for any obvious sacred flavor. The Stabat Mater was sketched early in 1876, soon after the composition of the Fifth Symphony and the Serenade for Strings. Many writers have tried to link it too directly to the death of his daughter Josefa the previous September. The storyline seems obvious — a parent mourning a child — and, indeed, there may have been some initial impetus, but Josefa had lived only two days in an era of high infant mortality, and most people were
died May 1, 1904 Prague
Severance Hall 2015-16
About the Music
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