Rossini’s ‘Stabat mater’

Live at the BBC Proms: BBC Symphony Orchestra & Chorus, conductor Nil Venditti, and star soloists perform Rossini's Stabat Mater. Respighi's Church Windows light the first half.

Presented by Petroc Trelawny, live from the Royal Albert Hall, London

Ottorino Respighi: Church Windows

c.7.30
Interval: Opera director Julia Burbach discusses with Petroc the operatic elements of Rossini's Stabat Mater, as well as the importance of stage craft in the works of Rossini and other Italian operatic composers.

c.7.50
Gioachino Rossini: Stabat mater

Federica Lombardi (Soprano)
Chiara Amarù (Mezzo-soprano)
René Barbera (Tenor)
Nicola Ulivieri (Bass)
Epiphoni Consort
BBC Symphony Chorus
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Nil Venditti (conductor

Fragments of Gregorian chant are reassembled in the jewel-toned mosaic that is Respighi’s 1927 Church Windows – given its Proms debut by Nil Venditti and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Four richly scored orchestral movements each depict a different scene in sound: a shimmering nocturne for ‘The Flight into Egypt’, a luminous portrait of St Clare and explosive martial conflict for ‘The Archangel Saint Michael’. Ancient musical models also inspired Rossini’s operatic Stabat mater – a powerful spiritual statement from the master of secular drama.