Robert and Kathy Lee from Baltimore, Maryland have been supportive to my site for a long time. In 2019 I received Jan Engels Stabat Mater as a present and last month (June 2020) he sent me list of six(!) Stabat Mater composers not yet in my collection:

• Antonio de Cabezón (1510-1566), two Stabats: Stabat Mater con segunda parte and Stabat Mater con diferente glosa
• Henri Carol (1910-1984 )
• Cristóbal Galán (1630-1684)
• Robert Hunt (early 16th century) F
• Franciszek Kottritsch (about 1727 – 1987)

Robert and Kathy shared with me: I don’t remember exactly when I found Hans’ website but I used it extensively. I not only discovered the Stabat Maters he had but the record labels they were on, which were then sources of even more sacred music. I even searched through the missing composer list, probably more than once. So Hans played a significant part in helping me put together my collection.

They were so kind to donate all these CDs to me.  I added them to the site (and YouTube channel) and again I could delete some composers from the list of Missing CDs. I am so grateful, thank you both very much!

Courtesy of Mr. Hubert Maillard from Switzerland I could add two new Stabat Mater compositions to my site.  The first one is by Nicolas Flagello (1928-1994) who composed a Stabat Mater just as a part of a composition dedicated to Martin Luther King titled  The Passion of Martin Luther King, a combination of five texts from the Latin Liturgy and excerpts of the famous speeches by Martin Luther King like In the Struggle for Freedom, We have got some difficult Days ahead and I have a Dream.

 

The second one has been composed by Paul Carr (born in 1961). Paul Carr was commissioned by the English Arts Chorale in 2017 to write the Stabat Mater which received its World Premiere on this CD. Paul Carr has divided his Stabat Mater in six movements. He gave them English titles:
I At the Cross, II Who would not weep? III O thou Mother, fount of love! IV All I ask of thee,         V Thy grief divine, VI In Paradise with Thee.
The last movement is the longest and begins with a reiteration of the words of first stanza (Stabat Mater Dolorosa). I listened to his Stabat many times because I love it!

I was recently again surprised by a present from Mr. Hubert Maillard from Switzerland. He sent to me the CD by the Marian Consort: In Sorrow’s footsteps. The CD has a new Stabat Mater composer, Gabriel Jackson from the UK. Thank you very much Mr. Maillard!

Celebrating its tenth anniversary with its tenth recording, The Marian Consort plays to its twin strengths in a lovingly conceived programme coupling two pillars of Renaissance polyphony with twenty-first-century settings of the same texts, including a newly commissioned Stabat Mater by Gabriel Jackson. A range of subplots – Palestrina’s influence on Wagner, Charles Burney’s collecting of Allegri and Palestrina – make this truly a story of interconnections: a path on which the present’s footsteps constantly overlay the past’s. At the centre is Allegri’s Miserere, whose convoluted reception history itself becomes part of the story and whose performance here fully exploits the world-famous acoustic of Merton College’s chapel.
From: https://www.marianconsort.co.uk/product/in-sorrows-footsteps/

I just added the Stabat Mater by Angelo Comisso. Angelo Comisso did not only use the Stabat Mater text. Part 7 is titled Nell’apparir del sempiterno sole composed by Francesco Soto de Langa (16th century) and rearranged by Comisso Stabat Mater. I did some research and I think it is a Christmas song.
Though I am not a real Jazz-fan, I love it, because of the trumpet and piano solo’s and improvisations. And the womens’s choir is great! I contacted Mr. Angelo Comisso about his Stabat and he told me he wanted to compose his Stabat Mater as a tribute to all mothers in the world, to reflect the pain of a mother losing her son. Every day and in every corner of the world we have “Stabat Maters”, grieving for the loss of their children.
Mr. Hubert Maillard pointed me to this CD.

Through my Ultimate Stabat Mater Website  I frequently receive messages from music lovers, musicians or composers about performances, recordings and compositions of the Stabat Mater. It always make me happy but I was extra surprised when Mr. Richard Blackford from England contacted me. He informed me he had been commissioned by the Bournemouth Symphony Chorus and Orchestra to compose a Stabat Mater and it was only when he came across four poems by Anna Akhmatova that a completely different approach occurred to him. So he had not just used the Latin text but combined it with some poems of Anna Akhmatova from her cycle Requiem, written in 1938, the Stalin-period, when her son Lev had been arrested and in prison for a long time. Indeed, I was surprised because, years ago, I got a Stabat Mater by Georgi Dmitriev (from Russia) in my collection and he too did use the Requiem poems by Akhmatova in his Stabat Mater. I told Richard about Dmitriev’s composition. We came in contact and I decided to attend the London premiere of his Stabat Mater on October 19th in the Cadogan Hall where I had the opportunity to meet Richard in person.

I had an exciting, wonderful evening! I was deeply impressed by Blackfords Pietà. He chose this title after revisiting Michelangelo’s statue in St. Peter’s in Rome. In the program book Richard says: I had seen it many times when I had lived in Rome, it was the luminescent beauty of the marble that struck me this time. How could something so sad , so poignant in its expression of a mothers grief for her son, be at the same time so beautiful, so inspiring of hope?
Please listen to Richard Blackford discussing his Pietà.

Finally, I have to confess something. When I was back home again I was looking for my Dmitriev CD and I found out that Dmitriev did not use a single word of the Stabat Mater text except the title of his composition: Stabat Mater Dolorosa!