BSO — Opening Night Recorded for Broadcast and Webstream on September 27

The Boston Symphony Orchestra had their opening night concert on Wednesday, September 23. The concert was recorded by WGBH, and they will broadcast and stream it on Sunday afternoon, September 27, at 3:00 p.m., Eastern Time. Go to the WGBH website, click "Listen," then find the Listen Live line on a terribly busy page and click the button for "WGBH 89.7" and that should get you there.

The thing I'm looking forward to is the world premiere performance of a piece for harp and orchestra. It is by the movie composer John Williams, and it was commissioned by the BSO and composed for the orchestra's retiring harpist, Ann Hobson Pilot. The concert got a favorable review in the Boston Globe. There was also an article the day before the concert about Ann Hobson Pilot which you might find interesting.

Stabat Mater

As I mentioned on my regular blog, the sequence "Stabat Mater" has been set to music by numerous compsers. As promised, here are some samples in various styles culled from many more available on YouTube. Enjoy.

Here's a different version of the first stanza as set by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi.

Palestrina's late Renaissance version, which goes all the way through without repeating the text.

Haydn (not the beginning part).

An excerpt from Rossini's setting, with Luciano Pavarotti singing.

And the beginning of Dvorák's.

At one point I collected a number of recordings by different composers. Talking to a colleague of mine at work who had studied Latin, I jokingly referred to my "collection of Stabant Matres" putting the title in the plural (which is as if I were to refer to a collection of various editions of the play "She Stoops to Conquer" as my collection of "They Stoop to Conquer").