About the composer
Boccherini (1743 - 1805) was born in Lucca in Tuscany, Italy. He was a master on the
cello. He composed more than 250 works of chamber music for strings (trios, quartets,
quintets) en is regarded as the "inventor" of the string quintet. In 1768 he
moved from Italy to Madrid, where he entered the service of Prince Don Luis, the youngest
brother of the King of Spain. Boccherini's music has its own style: pre-classical, but
with clearly Spanish influences. However, this is not true for his vocal output:
concert-arias as well as the Stabat Mater. In these he stayed true to the Italian style of
singing.
| Date | 1781 and 1800 (revision: opus 61) |
| Performers | Soprano, strings (1781), Soprano, Alto, Tenor, strings (1800) |
| Length | 38.59 minutes (1781) and 49.23 minutes (1800) |
| Particulars | The first piece is divided into 11 parts, varying from 1 to 3
stanzas, with an opera-like sound. The "arias" contain a lot of coloratura. The
cello player Boccherini clearly could not refrain from using a solo cello as accompaniment
to some of the stanzas. In his revised Stabat, to avoid the monotony of the single voice (as he wrote himself), three singers are used, accompanied by five strings. The division in parts is less clear here (Boccherini gives 14 tempo indications), so in my graphic representation I use the division in tracks of the CD. The second Stabat has been given a 4 minute musical introduction, for which Boccherini used the Allegro of his second symphony. |
| Textual variations | The text according to the "Analecta" is used, with the exception of line 2 of stanza 16: not "Passionis eius sortem" but "Passionis fac consortem" |
| CD 1 | Erato 2292-45425-2: Boccherini, Stabat Mater |
| About this CD | Recorded at the Palazzo Giusti, Padoue, November 1988 I bought this CD in a record shop in the Netherlands, 1998 |
| Orchestra | I Solisti Veneti |
| Conductor | Claudio Scimone |
| Soloists | Cecilia Gasdia, soprano |
| Other works | Recitativo e Aria "Ah no! Son io che parlo" Aria da Concerto "Care luci" |
| CD 2 | Arion ARN 68164: Boccherini, Stabat Mater op.61 |
| About this CD | From the copyright one could conclude that the work was
recorded in 1979 I bought this CD in a record shop in the Netherlands, 1999 |
| Orchestra | Ensemble Instrumental La Follia |
| Conductor | Miguel de la Fuente |
| Soloists | Tamara Hert, soprano Kumiko Oshita, mezzo-soprano Jean-Claude Orliac, tenor |
| Other works |
E-mail:
stabatmater@dds.nl