Vivaldi's production of church music was considerable - over fifty works have survived, and the existence of many more is known. Vivaldi's church music was varied, ambitious in form and expression, and on an artistic level at least equal to that of his concertos. One of his earliest works in this genre was the Stabat Mater of 1712.
Raised as a violinist, Vivaldi probably wrote little or no church music until the second decade of the eighteenth century. But his travels often put him in situations where commissions for sacred works might have arisen. In 1711, he was commissioned by the parish of the church of Santa Maria della Pace in Brescia, the birthplace of his father, Giovanni Battista Vivaldi, to compose a work in honor of the Virgin Mary. The work was first performed in this church on March 18, 1712, on the occasion of the feast of the Seven Sorrows of the Virgin Mary.
The Stabat Mater, like many of the composer's works, fell into oblivion and was rediscovered in the first half of the twentieth century and performed for the first time since 1712 by Alfredo Casella in Siena in September 1939 as part of the "Vivaldi Week".
This work is smaller than Pergolesi's Stabat Mater, since it features only one soloist (alto) and uses only ten of the twenty verses of the original Stabat Mater dolorosa sequence attributed to the monk Jacopone da Todi.
According to Carl de Nys, "one page like this Stabat Mater would be enough to testify to the deep faith and authentic spirituality of the famous Venetian abbot, about whom some malicious gossip still circulates, distorting the truth of his biography". This work is today one of Vivaldi's most famous sacred compositions, testifying to the authentic spirituality of the famous Venetian abbot.
Written in F minor, the work consists of nine movements, each corresponding to one stanza of the text:
Stabat Mater dolorosa - Largo
Cuius animam gementem - Adagissimo
O quam tristis et afflicta - Andante
Quis est homo - Largo
Quis non posset contristari - Adagissimo
Pro peccatis suæ gentis - Andante
Eia Mater, fons amoris - Largo
Fac ut ardeat cor meum - Lento
Amen - Allegro
The tempos are generally slow, the only fast movement being the last, "Amen," which is marked Allegro. The orchestra is supported by the basso continuo of the organ, which reinforces the meditative character of this sacred cantata.
Listen to: The Israel Camerata Jerusalem Orchestra
Paul Goodwin, conductor (UK)
Agnieszka Rehlis, mezzo soprano (Poland)
Choral Masterworks