Stabat Mater

Omer Meir Wellber Conductor

Tali Ketzef Soprano

Rona Shrira Alto

Nitai Zori Violin

Tomer Rosemann Violin

Odaya Koren Actress

Yehiel Orgal Lighting

Bach: Double concerto in D minor, BWV 1043

Pergolesi: Stabat Mater for Soprano, Alto and Strings, P. 77

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This concert brings together two Baroque masterpieces composed only a few decades apart, yet representing two distinct musical worlds. Johann Sebastian Bach’s Concerto for Two Violins in D minor reveals the Baroque at its most intellectually intricate—a richly woven musical tapestry in which the two soloists engage in a continuous dialogue of imitation, complementarity, and exchange. In contrast, Giovanni Battista Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater turns inward, offering a deeply moving meditation on the Virgin Mary’s grief at the foot of the Cross. It has become one of the most beloved and enduring sacred works in the vocal repertoire.

Bach’s Double Concerto is among his most celebrated compositions, and with good reason. Rather than competing, the two violins converse as equal partners, each voice completing and enriching the other. The sublime slow movement, one of Bach’s most lyrical inspirations, seems to suspend the passage of time, while the outer movements sparkle with rhythmic vitality, elegance, and the extraordinary contrapuntal craftsmanship that defines his music.

Pergolesi composed the Stabat Mater during the final months of his life, at the age of just twenty-six. Scored for two female voices and orchestra, the work combines melodic simplicity with remarkable emotional depth. Instead of dramatic theatricality, Pergolesi offers an intimate and profoundly human expression of sorrow, hope, and consolation. More than two and a half centuries after its composition, the Stabat Mater continues to captivate audiences around the world, demonstrating how music can convey the deepest human emotions with extraordinary grace and economy.