FULL STABAT MATER (Karl Jenkins) Cluj-Napoca 2024 Tijana Vignjevic, Manyoki Mária
Information on the Performance
- Work Title: Stabat Mater
- Composer: Jenkins Karl
- Libretto: traditional
- Venue & Opera Company: Saint Michael's church, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
- Recorded: March 24, 2024
- Type: Concert Live
- Singers: Tijana Vignjevic, Manyoki Mária
- Conductor: MOLNÁR Botond
- Orchestra: Visszhang Orchestra
- Chorus: Visszhang Choir
- Stage Director:
- Costume Designer:
Information about the Recording
- Published by: Visszhang kórus
- Date Published: 2024
- Format: Streaming
- Quality Video: 4 Audio:4
- Subtitles: nosubs
- Video Recording from: YouTube FULL VIDEO
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE
Stabat Mater is a 2008 composition for choir and orchestra by Karl Jenkins, based on the 13th-century prayer Stabat Mater. Like much of Jenkins’ earlier work, the work incorporates both traditional Western music (orchestra and choir) with ethnic instruments and vocals, this time focusing on the Middle East. The first recording features the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir, along with two soloists, Lithuanian mezzo-soprano Jurgita Adamonyte, and English musician Belinda Sykes, who both sings and performs on the duduk, an Armenian reed instrument.
Written in the 13th century, the title Stabat Mater is actually an abbreviation of the first line, “Stabat Mater dolorosa” (‘The sorrowful Mother was standing’). The poem reflects on the suffering of Mary, mother of Jesus, at the time of the Crucifixion. Lasting just over one hour on the debut recording, Jenkins’ setting of the 20-verse poem is one of the longest of hundreds of extant settings of the work.
Jenkins’ adaptation
Stabat Mater focuses on the suffering of Mary, but unlike most adaptations of the text, Jenkins uses languages other than Latin and his native English. Jenkins’ work extends across twelve movements, six of which use texts other than the original poem. They include a choral arrangement of the “Ave verum” Jenkins originally wrote for Bryn Terfel; “And The Mother Did Weep,” which features a single line sung simultaneously in English, Latin, Greek, Aramaic, and Hebrew; “Lament,” a poem by Jenkins’ wife Carol Barratt; and “Incantation,” which is partly sung in early Arabic. It also features two poems—a poem by Rumi and an excerpt from the Epic of Gilgamesh—translated into English and Aramaic.
The addition of the Armenian duduk (or ney) heightens the Eastern atmosphere, and its deep double-reeded sound adds a richer, more resonant dimension to the work than can perhaps be achieved using orchestra alone. Alongside the duduk, Jenkins features percussion from the Middle East, such as the darabuca, def, doholla, and riq.
The first movement is an extended variation of a piece from Adiemus, Cantus: Song of Tears, using the same format (with soft introduction preceding the main melody) and harmonisation. The seventh movement, “And The Mother Did Weep,” adapts “Amaté Adea,” the seventh movement of the first Adiemus album.