Stabat mater

Dvořák: Stabat mater, op. 58

Location: Stefaniensaal

Price: EUR 125 / 100 / 75 / 56 / 22 Order tickets

For Antonín Dvořák, the Blessed Mother’s pain as she stood below her son on the cross was the pain of every mother and father who have lost a child. Dvořák’s own newborn daughter Josefa died in August 1875, and two years later his one-year-old daughter Ružena accidentally poisoned herself with a glass of phosphorus her parents had left unattended. Three-year-old Otakar died shortly after from smallpox leaving the Dvořák’s Prague home suddenly silent. In honour of his three lost children, the composer began work on his “Stabat mater” once more, this time to complete it. It would be one of the greatest oratorical works of the 19th century and Dvořák’s most successful piece during his lifetime. The soloists’ fervent singing and the choir and orchestra’s tremendous climax were his tribute to the concert halls of the age. The melodies however tell of rural life in his homeland, of the people’s piety. In a letter to another grieving father, Dvořák wrote, “God grant that everything will be good again” and his “Stabat mater” ends with a luminous vision of paradise. (In Japanese)

The audience is invited to attend an introduction before every performance. The introduction will be hosted by Thomas Höft and begins at 7 pm. Admission free.

This concert will be broadcast on Ö1 on July 15,11:00 am