Stabat Mater

The music will be performed by the internationally acclaimed Belgian ensemble La Chapelle Sauvage, conducted by Karel De Wilde, with soprano Abigail Barker and countertenor Gleb Zakharov as soloists, both based in London.

Written in the final weeks of Pergolesi's short life and premiered only after his death, Stabat Mater is widely regarded as one of the most moving and refined masterpieces of the Baroque era, a composition whose emotional power transcends time, faith and style. A hymn of sorrow and heavenly beauty, the piece has inspired generations of composers, from Bach to Vivaldi, and has been performed by such greats as Montserrat Caballé, Barbara Hendricks, Cecilia Bartoli, Renée Fleming, Philippe Jaroussky, Nathalie Stutzmann and Andreas Scholl: artists who have taken Pergolesi's masterpiece to great heights worldwide.

This unique one-night premiere in the Netherlands offers the audience a rare opportunity to hear three parts of Pergolesi's masterpiece as it sounded in its own time, performed in an authentic church setting. These lower, warmer tones give the music a darker, velvety colour spectrum, exactly as Pergolesi would have intended.