Choir and Symphony Orchestra | Dvořák — Stabat Mater | Rubiś | Szlenkier | Gierlach | Shemet

Performers: Natalia Rubiś — soprano

Jadwiga Postrozna — alto

Tadeusz Szlenkier — tenor

Wojciech Gierlach — bass

Yaroslav Shemet — conductor

Jarosław Wolanin — choir preparation

Silesian Philharmonic Choir

Silesian Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra

Program: Antonín Dvořák — Stabat Mater Op. 58

Antonín Dvořák's Stabat Mater is a work that opened the way for the Czech composer to an international career. After performing the cantata in London in 1883, Dvořák was hailed as one of the most important composers of his era, and the success of the work earned him invitations to the most important European concert halls. The monumental elaboration of a medieval sequence about the suffering of Our Lady arose after the composer's personal tragedies — the death of three children — and became at the same time a poignant reflection on pain, faith and hope. The solo parts will be performed by Natalia Rubiś, Jadwiga Postożna, Tadeusz Szlenkier and Wojciech Gierlach, and the whole will be conducted by Yaroslav Shemet.

Dvořák began work on the Stabat Mater in 1876, initially creating an intimate, seven-part version of the work. It was only after further family tragedies that he expanded the work into a monumental, ten-part form with the participation of an orchestra, choir and quartet of soloists. The result is an extraordinary composition — almost ninety minutes of musical meditation, in which drama and mourning gradually give way to inner comfort and spiritual hope.

Although Stabat Mater was created in the era of late Romanticism, Dvořák's music surprises with its classical clarity and restraint of means. The composer avoids theatrical pathos, building emotions through subtle transformations of motifs, wide cantilens and the extraordinary softness of the chorus and orchestra sound. A special role here is played by the contrast between the intimate prayer passages and the monumental climaxes of the whole ensemble.

The work opens with a poignant motif of a falling phrase symbolizing mourning and suffering, which returns in various passages throughout the cantata. The following parts include a mourning march, lullaby passages, choral prayers and dramatic climaxes related to the vision of the suffering of Christ and the Virgin Mary. However, the final fugue “Amen” brings a clear illumination of the music and a sense of spiritual reconciliation — one of the most moving endings in all of Dvořák's work.

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