Visiting Oirschot for the annual Stabat Mater event has been a real highlight of the calendar, since its inception in 1999. This year the Stabat Mater foundation celebrated their 20th anniversary on the 17th and 18th March. We enjoyed the romantic Stabat Mater by Rheinberger and the Dutch premiere of James MacMillans composition, composed in 2016.
The concerts have always been of high quality: impressive, surprising and moving. In the last twenty years Stabat Maters by 37 different composers were performed, with compositions ranging from 15th and 16th century works by Josquin Desprez and Giovanni Pierluigi Palestrina to very modern works by composers such as Hawar Tawfiq (2013) and James MacMillan (2016). The Iraqi composer Hawar Tafique was commissioned to compose a Stabat Mater to celebrate the Foundation’s 15th anniversary. Daan Manneke composed the Stabat Mater for the Foundation’s 10th anniversary in 2013. As all performances were recorded on CD, we were able to add new composers to our collection. This included not only Manneke and Tafique, but also Wüllner, Fiocco, Dvořák (for piano), Dohnányi and several others.
Unfortunately, this year’s event was the final Stabat Mater concert organised by the foundation. It makes me sad and a bit melancholic. For us it means the end of an era. Nevertheless I am grateful for twenty years of Stabat Maters in the St. Petrus Church in Oirschot, which connected the audience with performances that were moving and comforting. I am certain that the efforts of the Foundation in organising these concerts have contributed to the appreciation and love of the Stabat Mater, not only in Brabant, but in the entire Netherlands.