Stabat Mater with Light Design

The vocal duo KCHUN and cellist Eduard Šístek present Stabat Mater by composer Marc Rosan - a work written specifically for them. The concert is accompanied by live light design created by Rudolf Živec.

The composition was created with the direct participation of the performers, who as commissioners followed and influenced its form until the final version. The combination of male voices with cello is sonically balanced: the cello takes a tenor register and as a bowed instrument offers phrasing and dynamic possibilities close to human singing.

Stabat Mater is a medieval Latin hymn about the suffering of the Virgin Mary standing beneath the cross - one of the most frequently set texts in Christian tradition. The Gregorian chant for this text is attributed to Josquin des Prez, and the first polyphonic setting comes from Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina from the 15th/16th century. By 2007, the text had been set to music by more than 600 composers, including Antonín Dvořák.