String orchestra, mixed choir, children's choir, mezzo-soprano, baritone and soprano-saxophone

Richard Blackford was kind enough to inform me that he had completed a setting of the Stabat Mater which he had combined with poems of Anna Akhmatova (from her Requiem). He titled the work Pietà. It was a commission from the Bournemouth Symphony Chorus and Orchestra.
From a review on The Cross-Eye Pianist: Through the settings of Akhmatova's poetry, Blackford makes the Stabat Mater a universal reflection on grief and loss and the attended rage, pain and incomprehension. The Akhmatova parts are like echoing the words of the Stabat Mater text. Akhmatova wrote Requiem in 1938 when her son Lev had been arrested by Stalin and in prison for a long time. She was convinced she would never see him again. Please, listen to Richard, discussing his Pietà here.
I am so happy I had the opportunity to attend the London premiere of Pietà in Cadogan Hall on October 19th (2019). I had a wonderful evening and was deeply impressed by Blackfords composition Pietà, very special with the poignant sounds of the saxophone. When I was was back home again I listened many times to the CD and I got more and more struck by this work.

In his composition Richard Blackford did not only has use the complete (Vatican-version of the) Stabat Mater text. After the twelfth stanza he has added two poems from the Russian poet Anna Akhmatova and they fit perfectly well in the text!