Easter 1767

How little the 11 year old Mozart knew that his Grabmusik, composed in Salzburg for the Good Friday of 1767, would also be the same date of performance in the Schlosskapelle Eisenstadt of the Stabat Mater from a composer 24 years his senior.

In Grabmusik, the child genius conceptualises surprisingly dramatic theological content, where “the soul” speaks to “the angel”. Ensuing is a composition that surprisingly holds with some of Mozart’s more accomplished mature works.

Haydn’s Stabat Mater, in contrast, is pure expressive Sturm und Drang – compact, intensive and brisk. For its time, Stabat Mater was one of Haydn’s most popular works, but today we are barely rediscovering it. Although originally written for a small orchestra of oboes, strings and continuo (presented in this program), in his later years, Haydn expanded the work for full woodwinds, brass and a double choir.

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