Joseph Haydn's Stabat Mater Hob. XXa:1 was written in 1767, for soprano, alto, tenor and bass soloists, mixed choir, 2 oboes both doubling English horn in the sections in E-flat major, strings and organ continuo. The first performance is believed to have taken place March 25, 1768 in Vienna with soloists Anna Maria Scheffstoss and Carl Friberth, with Haydn conducting from the harpsichord. Conductor Jonathan Green suggests adding a bassoon to double the bass line and perhaps just one player to each string part.
Pergolesi's
setting of the
Stabat Mater was already popular in Haydn's day despite criticisms of its not being serious enough. In his setting, Haydn aimed to be more serious while taking Pergolesi's setting as a model in some details, such as the "Vidit suum" which emulates "Pergolesi in its melodic traits, rhythmic quirks, and thin texture. Haydn, like
Traetta, even adapted a feature of Pergolesi's text setting, the breaking up with rests of "dum e-mi-sit spiritum" in order to convey the last gasps of the dying Christ."
Indeed "Hasse was greatly impressed with Haydn's Stabat mater, which must have seemed to him an added vindication of the Neapolitan style [of Pergolesi] that he more than anyone else had brought to flower in central Europe." According to Haydn himself, four performances in Paris were very successful.
Haydn's Stabat Mater is considered "suitable for a penitential Good Friday program."
