Incarno - Stabat Mater

Domenico Scarlatti and Antonín Dvořák both started learning music at church, by playing the organ. Soon, their talent turned them into virtuosos. Other peculiar parallels can be traced between the two lives of these composers: both of them had the same number of children, suffered the loss of close ones, their were born on the same meridian and they composed their Stabat Mater at the same age. 

Both of the pieces are in the same tonality, to which we owe, according to Simon-Pierre Bestion, “the same representation of a mother’s suffering caused by the tragic and unfair loss of her son”. The two works start by an overflowing emotion, which is translated by both Dvořák and Scarlatti by sublime vocal melodies of a seemingly unending diversity. These similarities are the heart of this programme. Thanks to an adaptation of Dvořák's piece for a chamber string orchestra and piano, the reunion of these two pieces will highlight the invisible bonds that unite these two composers through space and time.

Softly introduced by an intimate theorbo quickly followed by a piano and string instruments, stroked by a contemplative organ, sculpted solemnly by a craftsman, the two pieces admirably intertwine, shedding a few tears in the audience.

Jean-Luc Clairet, ResMusica