Stabat Mater dolorosa

The 'Stabat Mater' is the best known work of Giovanni Pergolesi's. It was commissioned by the 'Confraternit dei Cavalieri di San Luigi di Palazzo' who presented an annual Good Friday meditation in honor of the Virgin Mary. Pergolesi's work replaced one composed by Alessandro Scarlatti only nine years before, but which was already perceived as 'old-fashioned', so rapidly had public tastes changed. After his death new arrangements of 'Stabat Mater' were made in which the orchestra was extended with wind instruments and sometimes a choir was used. This arrangement concerns the famous opening movement of Stabat Mater in an orchestral version.