26. Mar 2027 at 18:00COLLEGIUM MUSICUM RIGA koncertzāle
Concert
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi - STABAT MATER
Pain, love and hope - in music that has moved listeners for nearly three centuries already.
On the evening of Good Friday, one of the most beautiful and emotionally powerful masterpieces of sacred music from the Baroque era will be heard in concert hall Collegium Musicum Riga - the Italian composer Giovanni Battista Pergolesi's (1710-1736) "Stabat Mater".
It is a story of a mother's pain, loss and compassion that transcends religious and historical boundaries. In the interplay of two voices and string instruments, an astonishingly intimate and deeply human musical world is revealed, where sorrow intertwines with comfort and suffering with hope.
The concert will feature soprano Monta Martinsone and sopranist Rūdis Cebulis, performing with the Baroque ensemble Collegium Musicum Riga under the direction of Māris Kupčs.
About the work
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi wrote his most famous sacred composition, "Stabat Mater", in 1736 - shortly before his untimely death at the age of just 26. The work was created near Naples and is considered one of the composer's last works.
The composition is based on the 13th-century Latin sequence Stabat Mater dolorosa ("The sorrowful mother stood"), which tells of the Virgin Mary's suffering as she stood by the crucified Jesus. This medieval poetic text has inspired many composers over the centuries, but it was Pergolesi's musical interpretation that became one of the best known and most frequently performed.
Pergolesi's "Stabat Mater" is a twelve-part work for two high voices, string instruments and basso continuo. Its Baroque richness of expression combines with melodic simplicity and unusual emotional directness. The composer forgoes excessive monumentality, instead creating a subtle musical dialogue in which every melodic line and harmonic tension reveals the deeper meaning of the text.
Soon after the composer's death, "Stabat Mater" gained extraordinary popularity throughout Europe. Its music was published, performed and adapted for various ensembles, becoming one of the most significant works of 18th-century sacred music. Johann Sebastian Bach also used Pergolesi's composition, creating an adaptation with German text - the cantata BWV 1083.
Nearly 300 years later, this music still retains its ability to speak to listeners with genuine, unmediated emotion.
Monta Martinsone - soprano
Monta Martinsone is a Latvian opera singer whose professional work spans opera, chamber music and early music repertoire. The singer's musical interpretation is marked by an expressive voice, refined musicality and the ability to reveal the emotional and dramatic content of a work.
Baroque vocal music holds an important place in her repertoire, in which vocal flexibility, stylistic precision and understanding of the musical text are especially essential.
Rūdis Cebulis - sopranist
Rūdis Cebulis possesses a unique voice - a sopranist whose vocal timbre and range allow him to interpret repertoire traditionally written for high female voices.
He graduated from the Master's programme in Early Music Singing at the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music, where he studied the principles of historical vocal interpretation in depth.
Rūdis has gained international professional experience through collaboration with the baroque orchestra Collegium Musicum Riga and conductor Māris Kupčs, as well as through concerts in Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Estonia and other European countries.
Collegium Musicum Riga - baroque ensemble
Collegium Musicum Riga is one of the most important representatives of the early music performance tradition in the Baltics. With more than 30 years of experience in performing historical music, it is the best known and most professionally accomplished early music orchestra in the Baltic states.
The ensemble's work is based on historically informed performance, using Baroque-era instruments or copies of them, as well as studying the period's performance practice, articulation, ornamentation and musical aesthetics.
The orchestra's repertoire covers a wide range of 17th- and 18th-century European music - from instrumental chamber music to large-scale vocal-instrumental works and Baroque operas.
Māris Kupčs - conductor
Māris Kupčs is a conductor, harpsichordist, researcher of early music and teacher, and one of the most important figures in shaping the tradition of historically informed performance in Latvia.
His professional work is closely connected with researching, performing and promoting the heritage of Latvian and European Baroque music. Under Māris Kupčs' direction, Collegium Musicum Riga has developed into an internationally active professional early music ensemble, with special attention to the authentic sound of historical works and the quality of musical interpretation.
Music that speaks across the centuries
The evening of Good Friday gives this message special meaning, inviting listeners to pause for a moment in the rush of everyday life and surrender to music in which a score nearly three centuries old comes alive in emotions that are just as understandable to people today.
We invite you to experience Pergolesi's "Stabat Mater" in the sound of historical instruments and in the interpretation of outstanding Latvian musicians in the intimate atmosphere of the "Collegium Musicum Riga" concert hall.
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