Antonín Dvořák

Stabat Mater, Op. 58/B. 71 (critical edition)

Antonín Dvorák (1841-1904) began composition of his setting of the Stabat Mater text in 1876 and finally finishing the orchestral version in late 1877, though it was not published until 1881 as Op. 58 (B. 71). It is traditionally thought that Dvorák decided to compose it following the death of his two-day old daughter Josefa on August 21, 1875, finishing it after the death of two more children (11-month-old Ruzena on August 13, 1877, and his firstborn son Otakar a month later), but some doubts have been raised about this motivation. Regardless, this ten-movement sacred cantata remains a profound testament to human sorrow and hope, an appropriate setting of a text that describes Mary's suffering as she watches her son die on the Cross. The work was the primary vehicle to Dvorák's international fame following the premiere in Prague on December 23, 1880, by the Provisional Theatre Orchestra and Choir under Adolf Cech, and it remains one of his most popular and frequently performed works, and among the most famous settings of the medieval Stabat mater. Edited by Antonín Cubr with a preface by Otakar Šourek.