Edited by Claudio Toscani (2012)
One-volume set: score + critical commentary included pp. I-LXXVII, 1-76
NR 139699
Piano vocal score available
CP 141117
Undisputed masterpiece among Pergolesi’s production, the Stabat mater was long considered a stylistic ideal model in the genre of sacred music. The work was commissioned in all probability by Marzio IV Carafa, Duke of Maddaloni, for the Cavalieri of the Arciconfraternita della Beata Vergine dei Sette Dolori and written between 1735 and 1736, in the last months of life of Pergolesi.
The extraordinary success and the unbroken tradition of the work during the eighteenth and nineteenth century are the reason of a so conspicuous presence of manuscript sources, now preserved in the libraries of over the world and evident proof of the fortune of the work.
This critical edition returns the text of the Stabat mater using the autograph score (now kept in the Archives of the Abbey of Montecassino) as main source and a number of manuscript sources selected (among the many existing) for their greater guarantee of fidelity to the original.
The volume includes an historical introduction – with the interesting history of the commission of the work and that of its genesis – and an apparatus with critical notes to the musical and poetic text.