It was sometime in the 1750s, presumably in Vienna, that Joseph Haydn first encountered Pergolesi's Stabat Mater, an experience whose great impact remained with him his entire life: inspiration from the score can be detected in almost every passage - not only vocal ones, but in his symphonic oeuvre as well - that Haydn wrote in the key of F minor. When he wrote his own Stabat Mater in 1767, it was primarily Pergolesi's work that served as his model. Haydn's opus even elicited a letter of praise from Johann Adolph Hasse, a source of pride for Haydn for the rest of his life. At the same time, the Stabat Mater was one of the compositions of Haydn's that established their composer's reputation across Europe, primarily after being performed in Paris.

Our programme is entitled ‘Les deux Stabats': this was how the Parisian church concerts where Pergolesi's and Haydn's Stabat Maters were performed on successive evenings were advertised in the 1780s. The popularity of these concerts at the time was quite extraordinary, and although the presenters did their best to find more ‘contemporary' Stabat Maters that could be included in this programme, only Haydn's work has proved able to maintain its popularity for such a long time, alongside the brilliant Pergolesi, born 41 years before it. Our objective for this programme is to evoke in the Béla Bartók National Concert Hall the memory and atmosphere of these Parisian concerts of the last decade before the French Revolution.

Presented by: Hungarian National Philharmonic