Dvořák's Stabat Mater

Programme: – Antonín Dvořák: Stabat Mater, Op. 58

For his second concert of the season, Ondrej Lenárd has invited a quartet of excellent soloists and the Prague Philharmonic Choir. Dvořák's full-length cantata Stabat Mater, the birth of which drew painful inspiration from the death of three of the composer's children, is one of the author's first truly mature works.

In 1880 it was premiered by Adolf Čech with the orchestra and soloists of the Czech Provisional Theatre; in Brno the work was unveiled with success by Leoš Janáček.

The composition's presentation in London in 1883 was a breakthrough for Dvořák's international career. The composer subsequently received an invitation to the British capital to conduct the work himself. This took place at Royal Albert Hall, where concerts of the BBC Proms festival take place today.