Giovanni Battista Pergolesi's famous ‘Stabat mater’ from 1736 sparked enormous enthusiasm in religious and musical circles and inspired numerous later composers to imitate it in order to meet the great demand for compositions of this genre. Like Johann Sebastian Bach, other composers during the 18th century also took up Pergolesi's model. One of them was Johann Baptist Wanhal, Jan Křtitel Vaňhal in the Czech spelling, (1739 - 1813), who came from Eastern Bohemia. In 1761, with the support of Countess Schaffgotsch, he came to Vienna, where he received lessons from Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf. From 1769 to 1771, he stayed in Italy, where, under the influence of Florian Leopold Gassmann, he began composing operas. This was followed by short stays in Croatia and Hungary. In 1780, Wanhal settled permanently in Vienna. Wanhal composed numerous instrumental works, including symphonies and concertos, and a great deal of chamber music. His sacred compositions include around 58 masses, litanies, several Salve Regina and motets, as well as the Stabat Mater and a Te Deum. The little-known 45-minute Stabat Mater is a masterpiece. It consists of individual numbers for soprano and alto solos and duets for both voices. Similar to Pergolesi, it can only be performed solo or with the inclusion of a female choir, as in our case. Some of the individual solo arias are very virtuosic. With the same number of movements, the same key of F minor and the same instrumentation for female voices and strings, the similarities to Pergolesi are striking.
Tommaso Traetta (1727–1779) studied in Naples with Nicola Porpora, Leonardo Leo and Francesco Durante and, like them, belonged to the famous ‘Neapolitan School’, which spread throughout Europe. In 1758, he was appointed court conductor and singing teacher at the court of Duke Filippo da Borbone of Parma, the Infante of Spain. His name was now known throughout Europe, especially as an opera composer, which brought him commissions from Turin, Vienna and Mannheim, requiring him to travel to these cities. Traetta then took up a position in Venice as director of the Ospedaletto (1766), one of the famous orphanages in the lagoon city that provided high-quality musical training. A few years later, he was appointed to the prestigious position of court conductor at the court of Catherine II (the Great) in St. Petersburg (1768-74). For health reasons, he then moved to London, where his operas failed to gain a foothold. Sick and weakened, he returned to Venice in 1777, where he died two years later.
The first version of the ‘Stabat Mater’ was written around 1750 while he was still in Naples, and the second version performed here was composed in Munich in 1767. This second version was only rediscovered in 1994. In Munich, Traetta also met the composer C.W. Gluck, with whom he developed a close friendship and collaboration. While the early version of the Stabat Mater was already composed for mixed voices, the solo parts were still mainly focused on the two female voices, soprano and alto. In the later version, the male voices, tenor and bass, are given greater prominence as soloists and are placed on an equal footing with the female voices. The early version has seven movements, while the mature version has nine. The key of both versions is E minor. Overall, the Munich version reflects the compositional maturity.
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