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Stabat Mater (Rossini)

October 15, 2023

Stabat Mater is a work by Gioachino Rossini based on the traditional structure of the Stabat Mater sequence for chorus and soloists. It was composed late in his career after retiring from the composition of opera. He began the work in 1831 but did not complete it until 1841.

Portrait of Gioachino Rossini by Vincenzo Camuccini, Museo Teatrale alla Scala in Milan

Composition Edit

In 1831 Rossini was traveling in Spain in the company of his friend the Spanish banker Alexandre Aguado, owner of Château Margaux. In the course of the trip, Fernández Varela, a state councillor, commissioned a setting of the traditional liturgical text, the Stabat Mater. Rossini managed to complete part of the setting of the sequence in 1832, but ill health made it impossible for him to complete the commission. Having written only half the score (nos. 1 and 5–9), he asked his friend Giovanni Tadolini to compose six additional movements. Rossini presented the completed work to Varela as his own. It was premiered on Holy Saturday of 1833 in the Chapel of San Felipe el Real in Madrid, but this version was never again performed.[1][2]

When Varela died, his heirs sold the work for 2,000 francs to a Parisian music publisher, Antoine Aulagnier, who printed it. Rossini protested, claiming that he had reserved publication rights for himself, and disowned Aulagnier's version, since it included the music by Tadolini. Although surprised by this, Aulangier went ahead and arranged for a public performance at the Salle Herz on 31 October 1841, at which only the six pieces by Rossini were performed. In fact, Rossini had already sold the publication rights for 6,000 francs to another Paris publisher, Eugène Troupenas. Lawsuits ensued, and Troupenas emerged the victor. Rossini finished the work, replacing the music by Tadolini, before the end of 1841. The brothers Léon and Marie Escudier, who had purchased the performing rights of Rossini's final version of the score from Troupenas for 8,000 francs, sold them to the director of the Théâtre-Italien for 20,000 francs, who began making preparations for its first performance.[2][3][4]

Rossini's extensive operatic career had divided the public into admirers and critics. The announcement of the premiere of Rossini's Stabat Mater provided an occasion for a wide-ranging attack by Richard Wagner, who was in Paris at the time, not only on Rossini but more generally on the current European fashion for religious music and the money to be made from it. A week before the scheduled concert Robert Schumann's Neue Zeitschrift für Musik carried the pseudonymous essay, penned by Wagner under the name of "H. Valentino", in which he claimed to find Rossini's popularity incomprehensible: "It is extraordinary! So long as this man lives, he'll always be the mode." Wagner concluded his polemic with the following observation: "That dreadful word: Copyright—growls through the scarce laid breezes. Action! Action! Once more, Action! And money is fetched out, to pay the best of lawyers, to get documents produced, to enter caveats.—O ye foolish people, have ye lost your hiking for your gold? I know somebody who for five francs will make you five waltzes, each of them better than that misery of the wealthy master's!"[5] At the time when Wagner wrote this, he was still in his late twenties and he had not yet had much success with the acceptance of his own music in the French capital.[6]

Performance history Edit

The Stabat Mater was performed complete for the first time in Paris at the Théâtre-Italien's Salle Ventadour on 7 January 1842, with Giulia Grisi (soprano), Emma Albertazzi (mezzo-soprano), Mario (tenor), and Antonio Tamburini (baritone) as the soloists.[3][4] The Escudiers reported that:

Rossini's name was shouted out amid the applause. The entire work transported the audience; the triumph was complete. Three numbers had to be repeated...and the audience left the theater moved and seized by an admiration that quickly won all Paris.[2]

In March Gaetano Donizetti led the Italian premiere in Bologna with great success. The soloists included Clara Novello (soprano) and Nicola Ivanoff [it] (tenor). Donizetti reported the public's reaction:

The enthusiasm is impossible to describe. Even at the final rehearsal, which Rossini attended, in the middle of the day, he was accompanied to his home to the shouting of more than 500 persons. The same thing the first night, under his window, since he did not appear in the hall.[3]

Despite the fact that the work is markedly different from his secular compositions, Northern German critics, as reported by Heinrich Heine in an essay on Rossini, criticised the work as "too worldly, sensuous, too playful for the religious subject."[2] In response the French music historian Gustave Chouquet has remarked that "it must not be forgotten that religion in the South is a very different thing from what it is in the North."[4]

Music Edit

The Stabat Mater is scored for four vocal soloists (soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor, and bass), mixed chorus, and an orchestra of 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani, and strings.

Rossini divided the poem's twenty 3-line verses into ten movements and used various combinations of forces for each movement:

  1. Stabat Mater dolorosa (verse 1) – Chorus and all four soloists
  2. Cujus animam (verses 2–4) – Tenor
  3. Quis est homo (verses 5–6) – Soprano and mezzo-soprano
  4. Pro peccatis (verses 7–8) – Bass
  5. Eja, Mater (verses 9–10) – Bass recitative and chorus
  6. Sancta Mater (verses 11–15) – All four soloists
  7. Fac ut portem (verses 16–17) – Mezzo-soprano
  8. Inflammatus (verses 18–19) – Soprano and chorus
  9. Quando corpus morietur (verse 20) – Chorus and all four soloists
  10. In sempiterna saecula. Amen (not part of the standard text) – Chorus

Written in 1841 for tenor solo, the andantino maestoso section "Cuius animam", with its rollicking and memorable tune, is often performed apart from the work's other movements as a demonstration of the singer's bravura technique.[citation needed] The first theme in "Cujus animam" was also quoted note-for-note in the 1941 Woody Herman jazz number, "Blues on Parade".[7]

Recordings Edit

References Edit

Notes

  1. ^ Gossett, (1983). p. 55.
  2. ^ a b c d Greenwald, Helen M. (2010). "Gioachino Rossini. 'Stabat Mater'". Boston Symphony Orchestra Program Notes for March 18, 2010 September 27, 2011, at the Wayback Machine. Accessed March 17, 2010.
  3. ^ a b c Gossett (1983), p. 59. Partial view at Google Books.
  4. ^ a b c Chouquet, Gustave. "Rossini, Gioacchino Antonio" in Maitland (1908) 4: 159. View at Google Books.
  5. ^ Wagner Library: (R. Wagner), "Rossini's Stabat Mater," translated by William Ashton Ellis 2007-10-22 at the Wayback Machine
  6. ^ Deathridge, John; Dahlhaus, Carl (1984). The New Grove Wagner. New York, London: W. W. Norton. pp. 19–24. ISBN 978-0-393-30092-5.
  7. ^ Kriebel, Robert C. (1995). Blue Flame: Woody Herman's Life in Music. ISBN 9781557530738.
  8. ^ Dubins, Jerry (2010): "As archival material that documents the accomplishment of one of the great conductors of the 20th century, not to mention the artistry of some of its finest singers, this release will be indispensable to Fricsay collectors. ...sounds a bit constricted, recessed, and muffled in the loudest passages. ...there are quite a few later [recordings] available in far better sound and in performances at least equal to if not superior to this one—Kertész with Lorengar, Minton, Pavarotti, Sotin, and the LSO comes to mind..." Fanfare, Vol. 33 (3), January/February 2010. Accessed July 27, 2010. Subscription required.
  9. ^ Osborne, Richard (1989): "Extant recordings have yet to reach double figures and of those only three—the Giulini/DG, the Muti/EMI, and the deleted 1955 DG recording conducted by Ferenc Fricsay—have any real merit. ... [The Kertész recording] is strongly cast and has the advantage of some dedicated choral contributions from Arthur Oldham's LSO Chorus. But none of this is to much avail when the conducting itself is so perfunctory." Gramophone, July 1989, page 78.[dead link] Accessed July 27, 2010.
  10. ^ Penguin Guide 2008: 2.5 of 4 stars
  11. ^ Re-issued 2011 as part of a 7-CD box "Stabat Mater", DGG 00289 4805010.
  12. ^ Osborne, Richard (1989): "Scimone's conducting ... isn't perfunctory but it is uneven, often distractingly quick, and frequently guilty of a degree of rhythmic regimentation that leaves the soloists unable to breathe or phrase at all adequately. ... [Merritt] understands Rossini's neo-classical heroic style and thus outmanoeuvres Pavarotti (Decca) in the 'Cuius animam'" on gramophone.com
  13. ^ Penguin Guide 2008: 4 of 4 stars, "Key recording", "Rosette"
  14. ^ Stabat Mater WorldCat
  15. ^ a b Jolly, James, ed. (2007). The Gramophone Classical Music Guide 2008, p. 875. ISBN 978-0-86024-962-7. Gramophone Guide 2008: rated 1 of 4 (Strongly recommended)
  16. ^ Naxos 8.554443
  17. ^ Osborne, Richard, (1999): "The conducting is bold and warm-hearted, the soloists accomplished, the recording generous. ... Morandi draws expressive singing from the Hungarian State Opera Chorus in slower, quieter music; elsewhere, the singing is no match for the choral work on rival full-price versions under conductors such as Hickox and Creed."
  18. ^ Osborne, Richard (2000), "Rossini's Stabat mater with opera-house forces — a risky venture or a piece of inspired casting?" p. 99, on gramophone.com. Accessed July 27, 2010.
  19. ^ Kasow, Joel (1999), Fanfare: "This may be the first recording of Rossini's Stabat Mater using 'original' instruments, but if the performance is to be so literal and unimaginative, then the result is pointless. ...search out the rival recording on DG by Chung, who shows us what a conductor ... can make of this deceptively simple music." Fanfare 23 (3), January/February 2000. Accessed July 27, 2010. Subscription required.
  20. ^ Kasow, Joel, (2001), fanfairarchive.com: "This is a literal reading: The tempos are quite jaunty, with blaring brass instruments more appropriate to the Dies Irae from Verdi's Requiem.... None of the singers is particularly distinctive.... My recommendation remains the Chung recording on DG, though acquaintance with the Fricsay recording (also DG) has its rewards despite the choppy phrasing of the singers." Fanfare Vol. 25 (2), November/December 2001. Accessed 29 July 2010. Subscription required.
  21. ^ Glass, Herbert (2004): "The present production emerges several sizes too large in terms of orchestral and choral weight. ... The numerous CD versions of the Stabat Mater include large-scale affairs such as the present one and those under Kertész, Giulini, Muti, and Chung, and the period editions under Marcus Creed and Christoph Spering, both with accomplished, less hefty solo ensembles and correspondingly smaller orchestral and choral forces. None is without its points of interest, but as overall satisfying encounters with this wonderfully entertaining work, I’ll take the lightweights, first choice being Spering’s (on the Opus 111 label) for its verve and clarity, and for contralto Sara Mingardo’s standout contribution." Fanfare Vol. 27 (3), January/February 2004. Accessed 29 July 2010. Subscription required.

Sources

External links Edit

October 15, 2023
stabat, mater, rossini, stabat, mater, work, gioachino, rossini, based, traditional, structure, stabat, mater, sequence, chorus, soloists, composed, late, career, after, retiring, from, composition, opera, began, work, 1831, complete, until, 1841, portrait, gi. Stabat Mater is a work by Gioachino Rossini based on the traditional structure of the Stabat Mater sequence for chorus and soloists It was composed late in his career after retiring from the composition of opera He began the work in 1831 but did not complete it until 1841 Portrait of Gioachino Rossini by Vincenzo Camuccini Museo Teatrale alla Scala in Milan Contents 1 Composition 2 Performance history 3 Music 4 Recordings 5 References 6 External linksComposition EditIn 1831 Rossini was traveling in Spain in the company of his friend the Spanish banker Alexandre Aguado owner of Chateau Margaux In the course of the trip Fernandez Varela a state councillor commissioned a setting of the traditional liturgical text the Stabat Mater Rossini managed to complete part of the setting of the sequence in 1832 but ill health made it impossible for him to complete the commission Having written only half the score nos 1 and 5 9 he asked his friend Giovanni Tadolini to compose six additional movements Rossini presented the completed work to Varela as his own It was premiered on Holy Saturday of 1833 in the Chapel of San Felipe el Real in Madrid but this version was never again performed 1 2 When Varela died his heirs sold the work for 2 000 francs to a Parisian music publisher Antoine Aulagnier who printed it Rossini protested claiming that he had reserved publication rights for himself and disowned Aulagnier s version since it included the music by Tadolini Although surprised by this Aulangier went ahead and arranged for a public performance at the Salle Herz on 31 October 1841 at which only the six pieces by Rossini were performed In fact Rossini had already sold the publication rights for 6 000 francs to another Paris publisher Eugene Troupenas Lawsuits ensued and Troupenas emerged the victor Rossini finished the work replacing the music by Tadolini before the end of 1841 The brothers Leon and Marie Escudier who had purchased the performing rights of Rossini s final version of the score from Troupenas for 8 000 francs sold them to the director of the Theatre Italien for 20 000 francs who began making preparations for its first performance 2 3 4 Rossini s extensive operatic career had divided the public into admirers and critics The announcement of the premiere of Rossini s Stabat Mater provided an occasion for a wide ranging attack by Richard Wagner who was in Paris at the time not only on Rossini but more generally on the current European fashion for religious music and the money to be made from it A week before the scheduled concert Robert Schumann s Neue Zeitschrift fur Musik carried the pseudonymous essay penned by Wagner under the name of H Valentino in which he claimed to find Rossini s popularity incomprehensible It is extraordinary So long as this man lives he ll always be the mode Wagner concluded his polemic with the following observation That dreadful word Copyright growls through the scarce laid breezes Action Action Once more Action And money is fetched out to pay the best of lawyers to get documents produced to enter caveats O ye foolish people have ye lost your hiking for your gold I know somebody who for five francs will make you five waltzes each of them better than that misery of the wealthy master s 5 At the time when Wagner wrote this he was still in his late twenties and he had not yet had much success with the acceptance of his own music in the French capital 6 Performance history EditThe Stabat Mater was performed complete for the first time in Paris at the Theatre Italien s Salle Ventadour on 7 January 1842 with Giulia Grisi soprano Emma Albertazzi mezzo soprano Mario tenor and Antonio Tamburini baritone as the soloists 3 4 The Escudiers reported that Rossini s name was shouted out amid the applause The entire work transported the audience the triumph was complete Three numbers had to be repeated and the audience left the theater moved and seized by an admiration that quickly won all Paris 2 In March Gaetano Donizetti led the Italian premiere in Bologna with great success The soloists included Clara Novello soprano and Nicola Ivanoff it tenor Donizetti reported the public s reaction The enthusiasm is impossible to describe Even at the final rehearsal which Rossini attended in the middle of the day he was accompanied to his home to the shouting of more than 500 persons The same thing the first night under his window since he did not appear in the hall 3 Despite the fact that the work is markedly different from his secular compositions Northern German critics as reported by Heinrich Heine in an essay on Rossini criticised the work as too worldly sensuous too playful for the religious subject 2 In response the French music historian Gustave Chouquet has remarked that it must not be forgotten that religion in the South is a very different thing from what it is in the North 4 Music EditThe Stabat Mater is scored for four vocal soloists soprano mezzo soprano tenor and bass mixed chorus and an orchestra of 2 flutes 2 oboes 2 clarinets 2 bassoons 4 horns 2 trumpets 3 trombones timpani and strings Rossini divided the poem s twenty 3 line verses into ten movements and used various combinations of forces for each movement Stabat Mater dolorosa verse 1 Chorus and all four soloists Cujus animam verses 2 4 Tenor Quis est homo verses 5 6 Soprano and mezzo soprano Pro peccatis verses 7 8 Bass Eja Mater verses 9 10 Bass recitative and chorus Sancta Mater verses 11 15 All four soloists Fac ut portem verses 16 17 Mezzo soprano Inflammatus verses 18 19 Soprano and chorus Quando corpus morietur verse 20 Chorus and all four soloists In sempiterna saecula Amen not part of the standard text ChorusWritten in 1841 for tenor solo the andantino maestoso section Cuius animam with its rollicking and memorable tune is often performed apart from the work s other movements as a demonstration of the singer s bravura technique citation needed The first theme in Cujus animam was also quoted note for note in the 1941 Woody Herman jazz number Blues on Parade 7 Recordings Edit1954 Ferenc Fricsay conductor RIAS Symphony Orchestra Berlin Women s Chorus RIAS Chamber Choir RIAS Boy s Choir Soloists Maria Stader Marianna Radev Ernst Haefliger Kim Borg Audite 95587 mono live recording from Berlin Konzertsaal der Hochschule 22 September 1954 8 1961 Karl Forster conductor Berliner Symphoniker Chor der St Hedwigs Kathedrale Berlin Soloists Pilar Lorengar Betty Allen Josef Traxel Josef Greindl EMI 1971 Istvan Kertesz conductor London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus Soloists Pilar Lorengar Yvonne Minton Luciano Pavarotti Hans Sotin Decca Ovation 417 766 2 reissued from 1971 9 1982 Carlo Maria Giulini conductor Philharmonia Orchestra and Chorus Soloists Katia Ricciarelli Lucia Valentini Terrani Dalmacio Gonzalez Ruggero Raimondi DG 477 6333 10 11 1982 Riccardo Muti conductor Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Orchestra Soloists Catherine Malfitano Agnes Baltsa Robert Gambill Gwynne Howell EMI Classics CDC7 47402 2 1988 Claudio Scimone conductor I Solisti Veneti Ambrosian Singers Soloists Cecilia Gasdia Margarita Zimmermann Chris Merritt Jose Garcia Erato RCA MCE75493 12 1990 Richard Hickox conductor City of London Sinfonia London Symphony Chorus Soloists Helen Field Della Jones Arthur Davies Roderick Earle Chandos 8780 13 1990 Semyon Bychkov conductor Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra Bavarian Radio Chorus Soloists Carol Vaness Cecilia Bartoli Francisco Araiza Ferruccio Furlanetto Phillips Digital Classics 426 312 2 14 1995 Myung Whun Chung conductor Vienna Philharmonic Vienna State Opera Concert Choir Soloists Ľuba Orgonasova Cecilia Bartoli Raul Gimenez Roberto Scandiuzzi DG 449 178 2GH 15 1999 Pier Giorgio Morandi conductor Hungarian State Opera Orchestra and Chorus Soloists Patrizia Pace Gloria Scalchi Antonio Siragusa Carlo Colombara 16 17 18 1999 Marcus Creed conductor Academy for Ancient Music Berlin RIAS Chamber Choir Soloists Krassimira Stoyanova Petra Lang Bruce Fowler Daniel Borowski Harmonia Mundi HMC90 1693 15 Period instrument recording 19 2001 Christoph Spering conductor Das neue Orchester Chorus Musicus Soloists Iride Martinez Sara Mingardo Charles Castronovo John Relyea OPUS 111 OP 30247 20 2003 Riccardo Chailly conductor Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Netherlands Radio Chorus Soloists Barbara Frittoli Sonia Ganassi Giuseppe Sabbatini Michele Pertusi Decca 460781 2 21 2010 Antonio Pappano conductor Orchestra dell Accademia Santa Cecilia orchestra and chorus Soloists Anna Netrebko Joyce DiDonato Lawrence Brownlee Ildebrando D Arcangelo EMI ClassicsReferences EditNotes Gossett 1983 p 55 a b c d Greenwald Helen M 2010 Gioachino Rossini Stabat Mater Boston Symphony Orchestra Program Notes for March 18 2010 Archived September 27 2011 at the Wayback Machine Accessed March 17 2010 a b c Gossett 1983 p 59 Partial view at Google Books a b c Chouquet Gustave Rossini Gioacchino Antonio in Maitland 1908 4 159 View at Google Books Wagner Library R Wagner Rossini s Stabat Mater translated by William Ashton Ellis Archived 2007 10 22 at the Wayback Machine Deathridge John Dahlhaus Carl 1984 The New Grove Wagner New York London W W Norton pp 19 24 ISBN 978 0 393 30092 5 Kriebel Robert C 1995 Blue Flame Woody Herman s Life in Music ISBN 9781557530738 Dubins Jerry 2010 As archival material that documents the accomplishment of one of the great conductors of the 20th century not to mention the artistry of some of its finest singers this release will be indispensable to Fricsay collectors sounds a bit constricted recessed and muffled in the loudest passages there are quite a few later recordings available in far better sound and in performances at least equal to if not superior to this one Kertesz with Lorengar Minton Pavarotti Sotin and the LSO comes to mind Fanfare Vol 33 3 January February 2010 Accessed July 27 2010 Subscription required Osborne Richard 1989 Extant recordings have yet to reach double figures and of those only three the Giulini DG the Muti EMI and the deleted 1955 DG recording conducted by Ferenc Fricsay have any real merit The Kertesz recording is strongly cast and has the advantage of some dedicated choral contributions from Arthur Oldham s LSO Chorus But none of this is to much avail when the conducting itself is so perfunctory Gramophone July 1989 page 78 dead link Accessed July 27 2010 Penguin Guide 2008 2 5 of 4 stars Re issued 2011 as part of a 7 CD box Stabat Mater DGG 00289 4805010 Osborne Richard 1989 Scimone s conducting isn t perfunctory but it is uneven often distractingly quick and frequently guilty of a degree of rhythmic regimentation that leaves the soloists unable to breathe or phrase at all adequately Merritt understands Rossini s neo classical heroic style and thus outmanoeuvres Pavarotti Decca in the Cuius animam on gramophone com Penguin Guide 2008 4 of 4 stars Key recording Rosette Stabat Mater WorldCat a b Jolly James ed 2007 The Gramophone Classical Music Guide 2008 p 875 ISBN 978 0 86024 962 7 Gramophone Guide 2008 rated 1 of 4 Strongly recommended Naxos 8 554443 Osborne Richard 1999 The conducting is bold and warm hearted the soloists accomplished the recording generous Morandi draws expressive singing from the Hungarian State Opera Chorus in slower quieter music elsewhere the singing is no match for the choral work on rival full price versions under conductors such as Hickox and Creed Osborne Richard 2000 Rossini s Stabat mater with opera house forces a risky venture or a piece of inspired casting p 99 on gramophone com Accessed July 27 2010 Kasow Joel 1999 Fanfare This may be the first recording of Rossini s Stabat Mater using original instruments but if the performance is to be so literal and unimaginative then the result is pointless search out the rival recording on DG by Chung who shows us what a conductor can make of this deceptively simple music Fanfare 23 3 January February 2000 Accessed July 27 2010 Subscription required Kasow Joel 2001 fanfairarchive com This is a literal reading The tempos are quite jaunty with blaring brass instruments more appropriate to the Dies Irae from Verdi s Requiem None of the singers is particularly distinctive My recommendation remains the Chung recording on DG though acquaintance with the Fricsay recording also DG has its rewards despite the choppy phrasing of the singers Fanfare Vol 25 2 November December 2001 Accessed 29 July 2010 Subscription required Glass Herbert 2004 The present production emerges several sizes too large in terms of orchestral and choral weight The numerous CD versions of the Stabat Mater include large scale affairs such as the present one and those under Kertesz Giulini Muti and Chung and the period editions under Marcus Creed and Christoph Spering both with accomplished less hefty solo ensembles and correspondingly smaller orchestral and choral forces None is without its points of interest but as overall satisfying encounters with this wonderfully entertaining work I ll take the lightweights first choice being Spering s on the Opus 111 label for its verve and clarity and for contralto Sara Mingardo s standout contribution Fanfare Vol 27 3 January February 2004 Accessed 29 July 2010 Subscription required Sources Gossett Philip 1997 et al The New Grove Masters of Italian Opera Rossini Donizetti Bellini Verdi Puccini W W Norton Inc Gossett Philip 1983 Gioachino Rossini in The New Grove Masters of Italian Opera New York Norton ISBN 978 0 393 30089 5 Fuller Maitland J A editor 1908 Grove s Dictionary of Music and Musicians five volumes London Macmillan External links EditStabat Mater Rossini Scores at the International Music Score Library Project Portal nbsp Classical music Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Stabat Mater Rossini amp oldid 1179703180, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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