Stabat mater in F Minor

Vivaldi visited Brescia in February 1711 to perform during the Feast of the Purification of the Virgin Mary at the Chiesa di Santa Maria della Pace. The following year, its clergy commissioned him to create a setting of the Stabat Mater, a medieval Latin poem that recalls the suffering of Mary at the foot of the Cross. Vivaldi’s majestic composition for solo alto and strings, his earliest datable sacred vocal work, was intended for performance during the evening service of Vespers, where its expression of raw emotions would surely have been heightened by the transition from dusk’s half-light to a shadow world lit only by candles. As befits a hymn, the music from the first to the third movements repeats for its fourth to sixth movements before Vivaldi underlines the Virgin’s sorrow with a heartrending setting of “Eja Mater”, its jerky violin accompaniment conveying the Holy Mother’s desolation. Rediscovered in the 20th century by the composer Alfredo Casella, Stabat Mater received its first modern performance in 1939 alongside Vivaldi’s Gloria RV 589.