Voxcetera Chamber Choir | Dvořák: Stabat Mater

Voxcetera returns to Highgate for a concert featuring Dvořák’s popular, moving, grief-inspired Stabat Mater, accompanied by chamber orchestra.

Dvořák’s best known, and most often performed, sacred work Stabat Mater is a setting of the medieval Latin prayer to the bereaved mother of Christ, and was likely inspired by the deaths of three of his own children. London performances of Stabat Mater in 1883 and 1884 were brilliantly received and played a crucial role in Dvořák’s international breakthrough as a composer.

This is rich, tender music that evokes sorrow and grief as well as hope and wonder. Voxcetera will perform it accompanied by chamber orchestra, playing Joachim Linckelmann’s arrangement. The concert will also feature a shorter work, Vigil Mass, by the dazzling young composer William Petter who died ten years ago just 34 years old (“British choral music lost a rare talent in 2016" - The Observer; “Music of affirmative, accessible beauty” - Gramophone on Vigil Mass.)