GRANDS CONCERTS: VOX LUMINIS / STABAT MATER & PASSIO

This programme pairs Italian and German baroque works, revealing different approaches to experiencing suffering, empathy, and spiritual contemplation. Johann Sebastiani’s Matthäus–Passion develops the narrative of Jesus’ final days, with the Evangelist’s voice guiding the listener, while solo and choral passages reveal the psychological and emotional complexity of the events. Agostino Steffani’s Stabat Mater presents a lyrical, meditative experience of the Mother’s grief, where counterpoint and harmonies subtly introduce the listener into the intimate dimension of suffering. Vox Luminis emphasises timbral precision, clarity of phrasing, and the dramaturgy of tension in both works, showing that sacred music can combine narrative, reflection and emotion. The listeners experience both drama and spiritual contemplation; they discover that different musical traditions, though distant in time and space, converge in perception and reveal the universality of suffering, hope and empathy. Each note carries a meaning, inviting deeper understanding of the relationship between the human and the sacred.