Skip to main content
A woman with curly hairs and speckle on the face.

MacMillan’s Stabat Mater

At St. Andrew’s Cathedral | Sydney Philharmonia Choirs | Classical Music

Please note this event does not take place at Sydney Opera House.

This concert promises a cathartic experience, tapping into music’s power to communicate heartfelt emotion, from the fervent expression of joy to intense sorrow. The Chamber Singers shine in this intimate but powerful program of music inspired by faith and human experience.

It’s not often that the composer of a new work gets a standing ovation, but then every new work isn’t like James MacMillan’s Stabat Mater

The Times

MacMillan’s Stabat Mater

The musical richness of Christian tradition meets an inspirational vision of faith in this intimate concert at Sydney’s newest arts precinct at Walsh Bay.

Australian composers Matthew Orlovich, Daniel Brinsmead and Andrew Anderson offer fervent and heartfelt expressions of joy, celebration and simple devotion. Arvo Pärt’s signature bell-like style is represented by two of his most popular instrumental meditations.

At the heart of this concert is music by James MacMillan, whose sublime anthem “Who Shall Separate Us?” was heard in the funeral service for Elizabeth II. His setting of the Stabat Mater is a fiercely impassioned evocation of Mary’s grief at the foot of the cross, finding soaring moments of extraordinary beauty and consolation in the heart-breaking drama of this most sorrowful of Christian texts. The Stabat Mater might be a 13th-century litany but in MacMillan’s hands it becomes a deeply personal and devastatingly immediate account of a mother’s anguish.

Program

Andrew ANDERSON
I Sing in My Heart*†

Arvo PÄRT 
Festina lente 

Arvo PÄRT 
Fratres 

Matthew ORLOVICH 
Joyful, Joyful!†

Daniel BRINSMEAD 
Cantate Domino*†

James MACMILLAN 
Stabat Mater**

* Premiere
† From 100 Minutes of New Australian Music Project
** Australian premiere

Artists

Conductor
Brett Weymark 

Chamber Singers
Sydney Philharmonia Chamber Orchestra

Presented by Sydney Philharmonia Choirs

Other information

You may also like

30 Jun - 1 Jul 2023 Classical Music

Simone Young & Steven Isserlis

Experience the grand emotions of Schumann and Walton with the Sydney Symphony’s Chief Conductor Simone Young and award-winning cellist Steven Isserlis.

A woman in black dress standing with her hands on a crash cymbal.
StillLifewithAvalanche16x9
26 Aug 2023 Classical Music

Still Life with Avalanche

Repetition, chaos and beauty become one in this mind-opening program, where each work presents a surprising change of perspective.

6 Aug 2023 Classical Music

Dvořák’s Serenade

Give yourself over to this spirited journey featuring the sublime and visceral music of Dvořák and Bartók.