Stabat Mater (Dvořák)

The Stabat Mater of Czech composer Antonín Dvořák is a setting of the eponymous medieval poem for soloists, chorus and orchestra. The premiere took place in Prague on December 23, 1880.

Formation

Dvořák made ​​from February to May 1876 the first sketches to the Stabat Mater, took the composition in September 1877 again and completed the score on 13 November 1877. Upon recommendation by Johannes Brahms the Bonn music publisher Fritz Simrock gave the work out as Dvořák's Opus 58 - Dvořák himself counted the Stabat Mater originally as his Opus 28

The emergence of the Stabat Mater is characterized by several tragedies in Dvořák's life. On December 19, 1875 his daughter Josefa died two days after birth. In August 1877 his eleven month old daughter Ružena died within a few days from poisoning and his three year old son Otakar Dvořák of smallpox, leaving his wife back childless. In mourning for his children Dvořák began work on Stabat Mater, which sings of the Virgin Mary in her grief to Christ crucified again.