Karl Jenkins: Stabat Mater Liverpool premiere and EMI CD
(February 2008)
The world premiere of Karl Jenkins' latest work for chorus and orchestra, Stabat Mater, promises to be one of the highlights of Liverpool’s City of Culture celebrations. The sell-out first performance takes place at Liverpool Anglican Cathedral on 15 March, featuring young Lithuanian mezzo Jurgita Adamonyte and world music vocalist Belinda Sykes with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir, conducted by the composer.Listen to a Podcast of Jenkins talking about Stabat Mater.
The new Stabat Mater follows the worldwide success of The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace and Requiem, which have become repertoire favourites with choirs around the world. The Armed Man has received over 500 performances since its premiere in 2000.
Tied in with the world premiere of Stabat Mater, Boosey & Hawkes has published the vocal score (979-0-060-11952-1), now available on sale for £12.99 from all good music shops.
Stabat Mater is also released on a new CD by EMI (509 2832) with the same artists as the Liverpool premiere. This is the latest in EMI/Virgin’s best-selling series of Jenkins discs launched with Adiemus: Songs of Sanctuary. The EMI disc of The Armed Man has sold over 200,000 copies since its release in 2000.
In the Stabat Mater, as with his earlier works for choir and orchestra, Jenkins interpolates the Latin sacred texts with settings of sympathetic poetry. The themes of weeping, desolation and prayer, as Mary sees her son on the cross, are reflected in Persian and ancient Babylonian texts translated into English by poet Grahame Davies, a lament by Carol Barratt, and the hymn Ave Verum Corpus.
The composer writes: “I tend to look outside the purely western European tradition for inspiration and freshness, so apart from setting the religious text I have also included words by ancient writers from what is now the Middle-East. My Stabat Mater will also feature some indigenous instruments such as the riq and darabuca, and a female vocalist will conjure sounds and techniques characteristic of the area.”
To encourage performances by a range of choral organisations, the mezzo soprano solos can be sung by a single singer, and Jenkins offers standard alternatives to the Middle-Eastern instruments.
For further information visit www.boosey.com/jenkins and www.karljenkins2008.com.
Watch the EMI video about Stabat Mater on YouTube.
> Further information on Work: Stabat Mater
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