Antonín Dvořák: Stabat Mater X (Talich cond.)

Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904)
Stabat Mater, Cantata for Soloists, Choir and Orchestra
op. 58 (B 71, 1876-77)

Drahomíra Tikalová, soprano
Marta Krásová, contralto
Beno Blachut, tenor
Karel Kalaš, bass
Prague Philharmonic Choir
Jan Kühn, choirmaster
Czech Philharmonic Orchestra
Václav Talich, conductor

X. Quartetto, Coro. Andante con moto (Quando corpus morietur)

20
Quando corpus morietur,
Fac, ut animæ donetur
Paradisi Gloria.
Amen

When my body dies
Grant that to my soul is given
The glory of paradise.
Amen

Antonín Dvořák was born on September 8, 1841 in the Bohemian town of Nelahozeves, near Vlatou, and not too far from Prague in what was then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and is now the Czech Republic. In 1904, he died in Prague, where he is buried. His road to fame was hard-earned. He was originally taught music by local schoolmasters. His interest in, and talent for music brought him to the Organ school in Prague (1857-59). He became organist in St Adelbert's church in the New Town quarter of Prague, not a particularly prominent post. He taught music to daughters from rich families. Also a capable viola player, he played in several bands, and in a new orchestra that would become the orchestra of the new Bohemian Provisional Theater in Prague. The best known Czech musician of that era, Bedrich Smetana, became its director in 1866. All the while, young Antonín harbored a desire to become a composer. He submitted some pieces in application for government grants for artists, and received the Austrian State Stipendium three times! (1874, 1876 and 1877). These stipends allowed him more time to write various compositions. Johannes Brahms was the most famous of the judges of the Stipend. Brahms very much liked what he saw, and asked his own publisher to publish some of the works. Beside his Moravian Duets, Slavonic Dances and the Sixth Symphony (later numbered as such), the Stabat Mater was soon performed internationally. Remember, by then Dvořák was in his late thirties! While he had been working on the Stabat Mater, off-and-on, he and his wife Anna lost their first three children soon after birth. It is not difficult to imagine that Dvořák's inspiration was not only gained by reflecting on the pain of the mother of Jesus, but by being torn by the pain on the face of the mother of his own three children they lost. Eventually, six children would survive.

(From a site dedicated to different Stabat Maters)

http://www.stabatmater.info/theology.htm

Interesting article also here:

http://www.scena.org/columns/reviews/040501-TC-dvorak.html

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