In 2012, I published a blog about Stabat Mater, composed in 1735 by Pergolesi. In that post, you will find more information about this beautiful composition, one of my all-time favourites. Many composers wrote music for the Stabat Mater, one of them being Antonio Vivaldi. In 2024, I wrote another post, Antonio and Andreas, about a recording of Vivaldi’s Stabat Mater by countertenor Andreas Scholl.

A few weeks ago, I found on YouTube a compilation of six Stabat Mater compositions, by various composers, from Palestrina (ca 1590) to Arvo Pärt (1985). Here it is, Pergolesi and Vivaldi are of course included, but others were unknown to me. Click on the screenshot to watch the video.

I decided to search for more Stabat Mater compositions and soon found this amazing site: The Ultimate Stabat Mater Website. A Dutch music lover, Hans van der Velden, started in 1992 to collect Stabat Mater CDs. Five years later, his partner, Hannie van Osnabrugge, created the Ultimate Stabat Mater Website. The site is now managed by the Ultimate Stabat Mater Website Foundation, created in 2020. At the moment, the site has more than 300(!) CD recordings of the Stabat Mater, with lots of information about composers and compositions. Click on the screenshot below for more information about the history of this monumental website.

There are many ways to access the information, alphabetically, by country, or chronologically. I used the chronological option to look for Stabat Mater compositions, composed in the 18th century, when the transition took place from Late Baroque (Handel, Bach) to Classical (Haydn, Mozart).

I found 50 composers of a Stabat Mater. Amazing. Only those are listed where a CD exists, so there have been more. Most of them are unknown to me. I selected a few that appealed to me. Of the four 18th-century giants, only one (Joseph Hayden) composed a Stabat Mater. The other three (Handel, Bach and Mozart ) composed religious masterpieces, which I have in included in the following list for reference.

1712 Antonio Vivaldi

According to Wikipedia, Vivaldi composed the Stabat Mater in 1711, with a premiere in 1712. Written in haste, only eight stanzas of the hymn are used, and the music for the first three movements is repeated for the second three. Still, it is considered one of Vivaldi’s early masterpieces. There is only one soloist, originally a castrato, nowadays sung by a countertenor or a contralto. The Ultimate Stabat Mater Website gives 1727 as the year it was composed.

There are numerous recordings. I have chosen Jakub Olinski’s Here is a screenshot, click on it to watch the YouTube video. Olinski is not only a brilliant countertenor, he is also an experienced breakdancer. Click here for his role in another work by Vivaldi; you may be shocked.

1723 Alessandro Scarlatti

Alessandro Scarlatti is famous for his operas, but he also wrote religious music. In my post Dixit Dominus, I mentioned him. His Stabat Mater was new to me; I found it on the Ultimate Stabat Mater website. It is beautiful music.

He was the father of Domenico Scarlatti, who wrote 555 keyboard sonatas, but also composed a Stabat Mater for choir, without soloists.

1736 Giovanni Pergolesi

Originally, Pergolesi composed the Stabat Mater for a male alto and a male soprano (a castrato!), customary in his days. Nowadays most recordings are for (female) soprano and either contralto or countertenor. I found this delicious recording by a boy soprano and a boy alto.

1741 Handel (Messiah)

Handel, one of the great composers of the Late Baroque, wrote numerous religious works, but never a Stabat Mater. In 1741 he wrote the Messiah, for me his most impressive creation. Here is a recording by the Choir of King’s College in Cambridge

1749 Bach (Hohe Messe)

Bach also did not compose a Stabat Mater (although he used Pergolesi’s music in his Psalm 51 . The greatest of all Baroque composers wrote many religious works. In 1749 he wrote the Hohe Messe. Here is my favourite recording by the Thomaner Choir in Leipzig

1767 Joseph Haydn

The transition from Baroque to the Classical Period took place around 1750. Haydn represents the early Classical period, and when you listen to his Stabat Mater, the differences are obvious. It was on the Ultimate Stabat Mater website that I discovered it. Beautiful music. The recording was made during the COVID pandemic, without an audience.

1781 Luigi Boccherini

Boccherini was an Italian composer and cellist. I knew and liked his string quintets, but I discovered his Stabat Mater only in the compilation mentioned above. I liked it so much that I decided to write this blog post. He belongs to the Classical era, but is a bit of an outsider. His Stabat Mater still has a Baroque setting, in my opinion.

Actually, he revised it in 1800, adding two more voices. and an ouverture. I prefer the original version.

1791 Mozart (Requiem)

Mozart didn’t write a Stabat Mater, His most famous religious composition is the Requiem Mass. started in the year of his death, but not completed. So many recordings on YouTube, how to choose one? Here is one, recorded in the Condertgebouw in Amsterdam. I lived around the corner for 25 years.