Two Baroque Masterworks

Pergolesi, Stabat Mater; Vivaldi, Nisi Dominus
Conductor: Luke Mitchell
4 March 2023

Ante-chapel, New College
8.30pm
4 March 2023
£12/£5 concessions from https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/

Soloists
Maryam Wocial – soprano
Austin Haynes – countertenor

Pergolei’s Stabat Mater of 1736 is one of the best-known 18th-century sacred works. Written by Pergolesi for the Confraternita dei Cavalieri di San Luigi di Palazzo and was one of his last works; he is said to have died just after completing the composition. The work gained considerable attention almost immediately and it circulated widely in printed editions. The Nisi Dominus is a setting of the Latin text of Psalm 127, the title coming from the first two words of psalm text. It was written in the early 1700s for the Ospedale della Pietà, suggesting that although it has been much recorded by with both women and men as soloists, a female voice was probably Vivaldi’s original intention. The score has been described as having the ‘greatest poise and delicacy’.