ORT Easter Concert

“At the Cross her station keeping, stood the mournful Mother weeping, close to her Son to the last”.

Thus begins the Stabat Mater, a 13ᵗʰ-century liturgical sequence attributed to Jacopone da Todi, for centuries a source of inspiration for composers. Among the most poignant versions is that of Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, an operatist from the Neapolitan school, composed between 1735 and 1736 for the Holy Week celebrations in Naples. Penned shortly before his death at just twenty-six years of age, the work was an immediate success and continues to be performed today.

Opening the ORT Easter Concert, scheduled for April 17 at Florence’s Teatro Verdi, this baroque masterpiece for strings and two voices will be performed by soprano Eleonora Bellocci and countertenor Filippo Mineccia. On the podium will be New Zealand conductor Gemma New, who emerged on the international scene after winning the Solti competition in 2021.

Completing the program is Franz Joseph Haydn’s Symphony No. 104, the Austrian composer’s last, written in 1795 as a salute to London. This perfectly balanced work, full of warmth and vitality, is the mature fruit of an extraordinary career.

Conductor Gemma New 
Soprano Eleonora Bellocci 
Countertenor Filippo Mineccia
Orchestra della Toscana

Giovanni Battista Pergolesi - Stabat Mater
Franz Joseph Haydn - Symphony No. 104 ‘Salomon’

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