Ten years have passed since the first performance of Mro CHRISTOPHER MUSCAT’s Stabat Mater, which is universally acclaimed. Joseph Agius talks to the composer and WILFRED KENELY, chief executive officer, Research, Innovation and Development Trust, about its upcoming performance at St John’s Co-Cathedral.

JA: The evening of Tuesday, April 4, at St John’s Co-Cathedral, is bringing together the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra, KorMalta, the Jubilate Deo choir, and soloists soprano Caroline Bruker and cantor Josef Bugeja, under the baton of Mro Muscat himself. There is also the fundraising aspect to it as well, in favour of medical research. What was the springboard for the whole enterprise?

WK: This is the product of a collaboration between the Research Trust (RIDT) of the University of Malta, and Mro Christopher Muscat, whose Stabat Mater had premiered 10 years ago to exceptional public acclaim. As RIDT, our role is to support and sustain research across all areas of study within the University of Malta. We do this mainly by engaging with sectors of the Maltese community – corporates, foundations, NGOs etc. Apart from that, we also organise, from time to time, fundraising events to help us raise awareness and funds for specific areas of research.

Wilfred Kenely

This concert is aimed at supporting medical research. There is a lot of research happening, particularly in the areas of cancer, diabetes, ALS, and other neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. This is where we come in, to encourage the local community to support this noble cause.

We had planned an Easter concert for 2020 but we all know what happened then, and the initiative had to be shelved. And so, in 2022, we started discussing again, and since it was soon going to be the 10^th anniversary of the premiere of Muscat’s Stabat Mater, we thought of producing it again. It is a large work that requires a lot of talent and hard work to produce. So we started putting the pieces together – the orchestra, the choirs and the soloists, and then we proposed it to the St John’s Co-Cathedral Foundation and they immediately accepted it. The rest is in Mro Muscat’s able hands.

It has to be emphasised that this concert would never have been produced, were it not for the support we received from our sponsors.

JA: The Stabat Mater is a Christian hymn, is believed to date back to the 13th century, that reflects on the suffering that Mary, the mother of Christ, endured while her son was being crucified on the Golgotha. Many composers of classical music such as Pergolesi, Haydn and Dvořák have put this famous ancient hymn to music. Is the content of the lyrics still pertinent in today’s world?

WK: If anything, today’s connected world has brought sorrow and suffering closer to us. Not one day passes without watching heartbreaking scenes of grieving mothers who lose their sons or daughters to war, or to calamities, natural or otherwise. Unfortunately, we have become almost immune to the horrific stories of migrants and their desperate attempts to cross from one country to the other in search of freedom and of better lives.

Jubilate Deo

Some manage to make it, while others end up either at the bottom of the sea or just vanish from the face of the earth. Somewhere there is an inconsolable grieving mother in each and every one of these stories. The lyrics of the Stabat Mater may have been written centuries ago, but the context has not disappeared. It has only modified its appearance.

My Stabat Mater takes the listener on a voyage, one that gradually transforms the oppressive and inevitably gloomy atmosphere of the opening movements into a bright ending fully loaded with hope- Mro Christopher Muscat

JA: Maybe one can affirm that a Stabat Mater at a time when many mothers are losing their sons to wars has further relevance. Having been composed 10 years ago, does its thematic universality contribute to its timelessness?

CM: The thematic universality of the Stabat Mater is, most certainly, still pertinent as the grief of the many mothers losing their sons to wars is, unfortunately, a sad reality. However, my Stabat Mater takes the listener on a voyage, one that gradually transforms the oppressive and inevitably gloomy atmosphere of the opening movements into a bright ending fully loaded with hope. The programmatic opening movement starts with ‘flashback’ images of the crucifixion and continues to narrate the sorrow of the mother under the cross.

Mro Christopher Muscat

Throughout the work, there are brief moments of respite that seem to anticipate the optimistic conclusion, but it is not until the final Amen that the listener can finally feel a conclusive sense of peace and serenity. As with every other work in my output, death is always depicted in a positive light: not the end (of this life) but the start (of eternal life). Furthermore, the timeless thematic of the lyrics is reflected in the musical language employed in the writing of this Stabat Mater.

JA: As a composition, I think that your Stabat Mater is classically structured and steers away from the 20th-century Serialism and the bleak Expressionism of Schoenberg, the Second Viennese School and its many followers. Maybe the 21st century requires a return to solemnity, a more understated yet more soulful expression of maternal despair?

CM: The structure of this Stabat Mater is entirely built on the religious symbolism of the numbers three and seven being, as it were, the numerical symbols for perfection and completeness in the Holy Scriptures. The Bible is loaded with references to these numbers, too many and too obvious to pass unnoticed, and I found in these a most useful source of inspiration for the structure of this oratorio. Divided into seven movements, this oratorio is written for soprano solo, cantor, double choir and orchestra.

Kor Malta

The musical idiom is typical of my sacred works in the way I blend tonal and atonal harmonic languages in one seamless sonic texture.

I make deliberate references to the church’s preferred styles of singing: plainchant and sacred polyphony (particularly in the central fourth movement). The work is infused with pathos and drama while avoiding any conscious exhibitionism or virtuosity. Above all, this sacred setting carries a very powerful theological message that needs to be conveyed, the famous dictum “where words fail, music speaks” has even greater significance. One sincerely hopes therefore that the music of this Stabat Mater will appeal not only to the ears but also to the mind and to the soul.

Christopher Muscat’s Stabat Mater will be performed at St John’s Co-Cathedral, Valletta, on Tuesday, April 4, at 8pm. For tickets, log on to the Teatru Manoel website.