Recently I got a mail from Paola Battoni,  a chorister of Coro femminile da Camera Francis Poulenc, a ladies choir.  She informed me that her conductor, Mr Roberto Braglia Orlandini is also a composer and he has composed a moving stabat Mater they have performed several times. She wrote to me:

Here are the information you have required about Roberto Braglia Orlandini’s Stabat Mater. It was composed in April 2014 after a long period of meditation.. It’s a composition for ladies choir, soprano solo and piano. The inspiring idea was that of giving the composition a timeless mark, a kind of spiritual alter ego not merely or simply religious, but a sort of spirituality much closer to man than to God. The lyrics are of course the original ones by Jacopone da Todi. The main idea which has motivated the composition also tends to convey and express the grief of a FATHER, as the composer is actually a father, and to a lesser degree it wants to be a way to come to terms with the senseless death through music. Grief stops life…we see that everyday in our personal experiences as well as in the experiences of anybody else around us. Life is frantic. When a tragic event happens and touches us we feel mental and physical pain, we feel powerless….it occurs to wonder whether this continuous and ceaseless running after things or people really helps us to consider and penetrate the mystery of existence….So, Stabat Mater dolorosa…is a way to stay inside grief and to live it and to share it while singing..
Unfortunately we don’t have a CD. Our women’s choir has performed this Stabat Mater several times. You can watch and listen to videos on Youtube or on our facebook page (Corale femminile da camera Francis Poulenc). Here is the link of one our most recent performances, held last April during the Eastertide season in the Basilica Palatina of Santa Barbara in Mantova in a concert dedicated to the passion of Christ called “Martyrium” 

Thank you very much Paola!