Choir (SSATB) and strings

Stabat Mater for Mariupol was written in the spring of 2022 when the terrible images of the bombing of this city, unknown to him until then, were going around the world. He wanted to learn more about Mariupol and came across the short but significant history of the city which was founded in 1799 by a group of Greek merchants that gave it the name Mary’s City. Dedicated to the mother of Jesus, the city soon developed into a rich open city full of life and culture, a hub of different ethnic groups and religions that were able to coexist for decades making the city flourish.
Mr. Benaglia about his Stabat Mater in the program notes:
…Remembering this history and its name gave me the idea of setting the text of the Stabat Mater to music. The Stabat Mater is one of the most frequently set texts in the Christian tradition of all time and depicts the pain and suffering of the mother of Jesus under the cross. I have thought of grouping the twenty stanzas of the hymn in such a way as to produce fourteen pieces corresponding to the number of the Stations of Cross…
it is a wonderful piece and sometimes full of hope, I think. I love the traditional tonal language. Mr. Benaglia was kind enough to inform me about his Stabat Mater and share the video with me. Thank you very much!

The "Analecta"-version of the text is used, with one change: Stanza 16, line 2: not "Passionis eius sortem" but "Passionis fac consortem". All twenty stanzas are sung.