Dvořák’s Sorrowful Cantata Set to Stir the Emotions

By JOHN HARLOW | Editor-in-Chief

The “Stabat Mater,” a Latin hymn to the Mother of Christ as she suffers alongside her crucified son, was written 800 years ago, yet has proven a sturdy vessel for many composers.

From Baroque masters Vivaldi and Scarlatti to the modernist Francis Jean Poulenc and Estonian minimalist Arvo Pärt, musicians and singers have found their own voice in this sad, sad song.

Today the most performed version is Giovanni Pergolesi’s simply exquisite setting, completed in 1736, weeks before Pergolesi died from tuberculosis in a Franciscan monastery at the age of 26.

(Check out the Dame Emma Kirkby/counter tenor James Bowman recording: Utterly beautiful).

There is similar pain and pathos underpinning Antonín Dvořák’s version completed a century later.

It’s more muscular, more complex, having been written for chorus and orchestra at the height of the Industrial Revolution when heft and volume were prized by the romantics. Yet there are still moments of intimacy that have caused a soprano to break down in tears.

It is big enough, for instance, to afford just a handful of solo notes from the cor anglais

oboe-like woodwind early on—an instrument that is then never heard from again.

The Czech started sketching it 1876 following the death of his daughter Josefa and completed it a year later—after his other two children had died.

It is a bold challenge for the Palisades Symphony orchestra and chorus to explore in concert at the Palisades Methodist Church at 7:30 p.m. on Sunday, May 6.

Admission is free, and there will be open seating.

Key will be the interplay between the leading ladies, both of whom have been performing with the LA Opera Chorus this year.

These are soprano Christina Borgioli, a protégée of the Straussian superstar Deborah Voigt, and Nandani Maria Sinha, normally billed as a mezzo but will be performing in the deeper alto range.

Sinha also works frequently with contemporary composer Maria Newman, scion of the Malibu-Palisades musical extended Newman tribe.

This night’s men include tenor Scott Noonan, who usually performs with the Malibu Friends of Music, and Eric Castro, a baritone performing in the bass range.

Castro was The King in the world-premiere of “The Woman in the Wall”—an opera based on a young adult book that may soon be turned into a movie. He has already acted with Jack Nicholson and Ellen Barkin, so Castro has already proven to be camera-ready.

To bring the force, the Brentwood-Palisades Chorale will be directed by Susan Rosenstein and the orchestra directed by Joel Lish, the former Palisades Charter High School music teacher who has soared ever since.

Maybe it’s time to step away from the TV for a Sunday evening and support live music in the Palisades?