Archives for April 2018

Last week Mr. Hendrik Decker was so kind to contact me about Liszt’s transcriptions of Rossini’s Stabat Mater. Mr. Decker wrote:

Today I assisted a performance by Albert Martínez-Lorente Romero (trombone) and Francisco Javier Jiménez Martínez (church organ) of an arrangement of the Cujus Animam movement of Rossini’s Stabat Mater by Franz Liszt, in the Jesuit church Iglesia del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús in Valencia (Spain), I thought that this might be of interest to you, since, on your web page that covers Liszt’s Stabat Mater, no mention is made of the existence of Liszt’s arrangement of Rossini’s Cujus Animam, originally for piano. Apart from the original arrangement for piano and the version of Liszt’s arrangement of Rossini’s Cujus Anima for organ and trombone, as heard today, also an adaptation of Liszts’ arrangement of Rossini’s Cujus Anima for organ and voice exist, according to what can be foud of the world wide web…

As I could not imagine that Hans would not have known about these Liszt transcriptions, I checked, and indeed on the Liszt page Hans says: Liszt frequently made transcriptions for piano from famous compositions of other composers; one was Rossini’s Stabat Mater. However, Mr. Decker provided me with interesting and valueble extra information and thanks to him, I could order a CD  with Liszt’s piano version of Cuius Animam Gementem. You can listen to it here:

It is 8 pm and silence descends on the main auditorium of the Oosterpoort Theatre in Groningen (The Netherlands). On stage, a few hundred young people aged between 16 and 18 are lined up behind an orchestra. The youths are the students of the 10^th, 11^th and 12^th grade of the Parcival College in Groningen, which is the school my niece’s children attend. The Parcival College educates the students according to the philosophy of Rudolf Steiner, who founded the anthroposophy movement.

The conductor, one of the teachers, ascends the stage. The orchestra begins to play and the voices join in. Enthralled, I listen to Verdi’s Stabat Mater. This short but complex piece is the opening of the concert, an annual performance in the week before Easter in which all 900 students and over 100 staff participate. The students know the words by heart and the enthusiasm in their voices as they sing is deeply moving. Later in the evening they perform Ramirez’ Missa Criolla. In between, the pop choir of the 7^th grade perform songs from different era’s in various styles and languages. The 9^th grade sing songs in Dutch, which they wrote themselves. The highlight of the evening is the percussion session of the 8^th grade. The setting is an airport: people are going on holidays, are waiting on a loved one, and someone is in a rush to catch a plane. There are business people, pilots, mechanics and adventurers. We are brought on a journey by the students, who choreographed the performance and wrote all the rhythms themselves. They use not only drums, but also a selection of different objects, such as shopping trolleys, suitcases, umbrellas and bicycle pumps. It sounds great and it is very entertaining to watch. I came for Verdi’s Stabat Mater, but the whole programme was very impressive and surprising. It was a wonderful evening, thanks to the Parcival College.

Visiting Oirschot for the annual Stabat Mater event has been a real highlight of the calendar, since its inception in 1999. This year the Stabat Mater foundation celebrated their 20th anniversary on the 17th and 18th March. We enjoyed the romantic Stabat Mater by Rheinberger and the Dutch premiere of James MacMillans composition, composed in 2016.
The concerts have always been of high quality:  impressive, surprising and moving. In the last twenty years Stabat Maters by 37 different composers were performed,  with compositions ranging from 15th and 16th century works by Josquin Desprez and Giovanni Pierluigi Palestrina to very modern works by composers such as Hawar Tawfiq (2013) and James MacMillan (2016). The Iraqi composer Hawar Tafique was commissioned to compose a Stabat Mater to celebrate the Foundation’s  15th  anniversary.  Daan Manneke  composed the Stabat Mater for the Foundation’s 10th anniversary in 2013. As all performances were recorded on CD, we were able to add new composers to our collection. This included not only Manneke and Tafique, but also Wüllner, Fiocco, Dvořák (for piano), Dohnányi and several others.
Unfortunately, this year’s event was the final Stabat Mater concert organised by the foundation.  It makes me sad and a bit melancholic. For us it means the end of an era. Nevertheless I am grateful for twenty years of Stabat Maters in the St. Petrus Church in Oirschot, which connected the audience with performances that were moving and comforting. I am certain that the efforts of the Foundation in organising these concerts have contributed to the appreciation and love of the Stabat Mater, not only in Brabant, but in the entire Netherlands.