account
basket
Challenge Records Int. logo
Stabat Mater Stabat Pater
Noortje Braat, Egon Kracht

Egon Kracht

Stabat Mater Stabat Pater

Price: € 12.95
Format: SACD hybrid
Label: Buzz
UPC: 0608917611328
Catnr: ZZ 76113
Release date: 04 April 2014
Buy
1 SACD hybrid
✓ in stock
€ 12.95
Buy
 
Label
Buzz
UPC
0608917611328
Catalogue number
ZZ 76113
Release date
04 April 2014

"Everything falls into place. The singers sing pure and the organ places himself almost secretly in the music. The key is that the composer Egon Force has understood what it is about."

Opusklassiek.nl, 01-6-2014
Album
Artist(s)
Composer(s)
Press
EN
DE

About the album

"Stabat Mater Stabat Pater is the third passion work I’ve written over a ten year period. It completes a triptych of modern religious pieces in which suffering is central. In contrast to other passion works this theme doesn’t necessarily revolve around Jesus’ death on the cross. As a non-believer I prefer to stress the human aspect in ancient religious writings. Friendship, love of one’s neighbour and treason remain the major topics, but their perception is taken out of religious context.

For the St. Matthew’s Passion, my instrumental reworking of Bach’s masterpiece from 2002 my starting point as a composer was: What will remain of the spiritual content if you leave out the lyrics? ‘Thank god’ the attempt was successful; bare to the bone Bach’s music still manages to touch the listener’s soul directly. In his libretto for my Judas Passion Jeroen van Merwijk drew upon the Gospel of Judas Iscariot, rediscovered in 2005. In this Judas doesn’t appear as the bad guy, but as Jesus’ best friend. Jesus asks Judas to betray him as the ultimate act of friendship. It puts Judas in a mental torture, making it Judas’ passion. The staged version of the Judas Passion premiered in 2010.

In the beginning Stabat Mater Stabat Pater was simply a musical setting of the famous 13th century poem Stabat Mater Dolorosa. This was written by an anonymous monk, and in the history of music many composers have set it to music. Gradually I felt the need to give the father a role in the story: A man who is joining his wife in mourning their child’s death. It’s a situation which can often tear a family apart, for quite often the parents can’t share their grief. This is the subject matter that lies at the heart of Stabat Mater Stabat Pater.
I adapted the original poem in places and gave the father a voice. I also wanted to use text material of a secular nature. Upon my request Jaap Toorenaar made a ‘male’ adaptation of the Stabat Mater Dolorosa (‘Stabat Pater Dolorosus’). I asked my wife, Noortje Braat, to write some contemplative lyrics in Dutch and I took some lines from novels by the Dutch authors A.F.Th. van der Heijden and P.F. Thomése. This all resulted in a libretto in which Latin and Dutch texts stand side by side. Thus both the mother and the father are given a voice, and the parents’ grief over the loss of a child is put into a secular context. In addition to the father and the mother a third voice is introduced: the ‘good friend of the family’, who stands by the parents in a period of mourning.

Stabat Mater Stabat Pater is performed by The Troupe, my own ensemble, which has helped me perform many musical and theatrical projects. For every new composition The Troupe’s line-up is different. I will pick the musicians who will best suit the particular overall sound I have in mind. At the same time I will write for the individual performer what best suits him or her, making use of their musical strengths. This particular incarnation of The Troupe is of a wondrous beauty, making for a splendid performance of the composition. Right on the nose, with an intensity that befits the work. One Dutch newspaper, in a review of the 2011 premiere, called Stabat Mater Stabat Pater a ‘modern classic’. The whole Troupe should take that compliment as it was intended."

Egon Kracht
Stabat Mater Stabat Pater ist bereits das dritte Werk von Egon Kracht innerhalb von zehn Jahren, das sich mit der Passion beschäftigt (St. Matthew's Passion von 2002, Juda's Passion 2010). Es komplettiert ein Tryptichon moderner religiöser Kompositionen, in denen das Leiden als zentrales Sujet zu finden ist. Im Vergleich zu anderen Passions-Kompositionen ist dieses Thema jedoch nicht zwingend an die Leiden und den Tod von Jesus Christus am Kreuz gebunden. Vielmehr versucht Ego Kracht hier, die menschlichen Aspekte in die religiösen Texte zu implizieren. So werden beispielsweise Freundschaft, Nächstenliebe und auch Verrat verarbeitet, entlehnt aus den religiösen Erkenntnissen.

Am Anfang stand für Egon Kracht das Gedicht eines unbekanntes Möchs aus dem 13. Jahrhundert: Stabat Mater Dolorosa. Kracht verfolgte hierbei jedoch einen anderen Ansatz als die unzähligen Komponisten, die sich in der vergangenen Jahrhunderten mit dem Text auseinandersetzten. Kracht: "Nach und nach hatte ich das Bedürfniss, auch dem Vater ein Rolle in der Geschichte zu geben: Einem Mann, der seine Frau beim Klagen über den Verlust des Sohnes begleitet. Dies ist eine Situation, die häufig Familien auseinanderbrechen lässt, denn sehr häufig sind die Eltern nicht in der Lage, ihre Trauer zu teilen." Dies ist der Grundgedanke von Stabat Mater Stabat Pater. "Ich habe das ursprüngliche Gedicht in Teilen adaptiert und gab nun auch dem Vater eine Stimme. Zusätzlich wollte ich Textstellen mit weltlichem Hintergrund verwenden. Jaap Toorenaar fertigte eine 'männliche' Version von Stabat Mater Dolorosa (Stabat Pater Dolorosus) an. Ich bat meine Frau, Noortje Braat, kontemplative Lyrik in Niederländischer Sprache zu verfassen und zusätzlich habe ich Zitate aus Romanen der Autoren A.F.Th. van der Heijden und P.F. Thomése verwendet. Dies alles resultierte zu einem Libretto, in dem Texte in Latein und Nierderländischer Sprache Seite an Seite stehen. Hier wird sowohl der Mutter als auch dem Vater die Möglichkeit gegeben, ihrer Trauer über den Verlust des Kindes Ausdruck zu verleihen und es in einen weltlichen Kontext zu transferieren. Zusätzlich zum Vater und selbstverständlich der Mutter gesellt sich noch eine dritte Stimme in das Klagelied: Der gute Freund der Familie, der den Eltern beisteht."

Press

Everything falls into place. The singers sing pure and the organ places himself almost secretly in the music. The key is that the composer Egon Force has understood what it is about.
Opusklassiek.nl, 01-6-2014

Combining classical singing with a jazz instrumentation seems bold, as is the use of the Dutch language, but it works wonderfully well.
Rootstime, 30-5-2014

Aankondiging voor opkomend concert stabat mater stabat pater. 
De Volkskrant

Stabat mater Stabat Pater is a modern classical work, but it is also  contemporary composed. And that alone is an achievement in itself
Jazzenzo

Play album Play album

Often bought together with..

Johann Sebastian Bach
Partitas for Saxophone
Raaf Hekkema

You might also like..

Catharsis
Michiel Stekelenburg
Frédéric Chopin
The poor, sad angel (re-issue)
Nikolai Lugansky
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
The First Vienna Concertos | Piano Concertos Nos. 11-12-13
Ben Kim | Concertgebouw Chamber Orchestra
Being Human
Lynne Arriale Trio
Traveller's Ways
Jasper Somsen | Enrico Pieranunzi | Gabriele Mirabassi
Robert Schumann
Schumann Symphonies 1 & 2
Stavanger Symphony Orchestra | Jan Willem de Vriend
Michael Haydn, Joseph Haydn
Violin Concerto No. 4 | Concerto for Viola and Harpsichord
Noriko Amano | Ryo Terakado
Prisma | Jazz Thing Next Generation Vol. 101
Clemens Gottwald
Johann Schenck
L’Echo du Danube
Sofia Diniz
Drop Me Off
Reinhardt Winkler
Antonio Bononcini
Cantate per Contralto con Violini
Ars Antiqua Austria
Portais
Henrique Gomide