Dvořák’s Stabat Mater at St Dunstan's Church, Mayfield on Sunday 16th November 2025

Dvořák’s Stabat Mater

Add to my Calendar 16-11-2025 19:30 16-11-2025 21:30 36 Dvořák’s Stabat Mater The Mayfield Festival Choir is directed by Jeremy Summerly with the Ripieno Players and soloists Sofia Kirwan-Baez, Alexandria Moon, Francis Melville and Gabriel Tufail-Smith. It was the Stabat mater that alerted British audiences to Antonín Dvořák’s greatness as a composer. The Stabat mater was performed in London in the early 1880s (in the newly-built Royal Albert Hall), and it had been written sporadically at a difficult point in the Czech composer’s life. Dvořák was in his mid-thirties when he was composing the Stabat mater – at a time when he lost his first three children within the space of two years. Inevitably, this series of bereavements coloured Dvořák’s approach to the setting of this heartfelt 13th-century text. That said, there is no self-pity in the Stabat mater. Tune after glorious tune fills a work that portrays every positive emotion on the spectrum: fear, awe, fervour, patriotism, love, and joy; all of which ultimately lead to triumph in the piece’s closing section. Because Dvořák is so well known for his symphonies, operas, and Slavonic Dances, it is easy to overlook his sacred music. But Dvořák was working as a church musician in Prague while he wrote the Stabat mater, and his deep religious conviction and unshakeable faith in humanity are evident in every bar of his great oratorio. For this performance, Mayfield Festival Choir will be joined, as usual, by the Ripieno Players and four young vocal soloists, who will be led by the incomparable Soprano, Sofia Kirwan-Baez, whose presence in Mayfield is always greeted with well-deserved high expectations. St Dunstan's Church, Mayfield DD/MM/YYYY

Details

St Dunstan's Church
High Street
Mayfield
East Sussex
TN20 6AB
England

Sunday 16th November 2025
7:30 PM

Tickets

Prices: Tickets: £8, £15, £25 and £30 (under 25s free). Sew Inspired, Mayfield.
Booking line: 0333 666 3366
Book Tickets

Programme

Antonin Dvorak – Stabat Mater, Op.58

Performers

Jeremy Summerly – Conductor
Sofia Kirwan-Baez – soprano
Alexandria Moon – mezzo-soprano
Francis Melville – tenor
Gabriel Tufail-Smith – Bass

Mayfield Festival Choir
Ripieno Players

Programme Note

The Mayfield Festival Choir is directed by Jeremy Summerly with the Ripieno Players and soloists Sofia Kirwan-Baez, Alexandria Moon, Francis Melville and Gabriel Tufail-Smith.

It was the Stabat mater that alerted British audiences to Antonín Dvořák’s greatness as a composer. The Stabat mater was performed in London in the early 1880s (in the newly-built Royal Albert Hall), and it had been written sporadically at a difficult point in the Czech composer’s life. Dvořák was in his mid-thirties when he was composing the Stabat mater – at a time when he lost his first three children within the space of two years. Inevitably, this series of bereavements coloured Dvořák’s approach to the setting of this heartfelt 13th-century text. That said, there is no self-pity in the Stabat mater. Tune after glorious tune fills a work that portrays every positive emotion on the spectrum: fear, awe, fervour, patriotism, love, and joy; all of which ultimately lead to triumph in the piece’s closing section.

Because Dvořák is so well known for his symphonies, operas, and Slavonic Dances, it is easy to overlook his sacred music. But Dvořák was working as a church musician in Prague while he wrote the Stabat mater, and his deep religious conviction and unshakeable faith in humanity are evident in every bar of his great oratorio. For this performance, Mayfield Festival Choir will be joined, as usual, by the Ripieno Players and four young vocal soloists, who will be led by the incomparable Soprano, Sofia Kirwan-Baez, whose presence in Mayfield is always greeted with well-deserved high expectations.

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