Frank Ferko – Stabat Mater (2000)

When totally unfamiliar with a contemporary composer, I’m usually quite apprehensive of what I’m about to hear by the time I get an album of his. There’s always a chance the music falls into the category of popular, new-age/semi-classical rubbish, nowadays going under the name of modern classical. You all know names of composers who make that stuff, no need to mention any; as long as I can’t play Für Elise on the piano, you won’t hear me speak too disdainfully about those who may not have the talent to create anything similar to Beethoven’s tune – but who are most probably able to play it. Or remix it.

Have no fears, American composer Frank Ferko is an interesting discovery. I listened to this record twice today as soon as I got it from the library. Some parts even three times over…especially this part - now what do you think of this haiku, taken from the texts:

“I didn’t consider
When I chose your name
How it would look
On a tombstone”

Shocking, isn’t it? By far the cruelest poem I’ve read in a long, long time. The unadorned imagery hit me in the face like a whiplash. It was written by Charlotte Mayerson, whose son died of aids. Ferko interlaced the original text of the Stabat Mater with texts from other poets in order to highlight the theme of a mother losing her child, and the numb, harsh, and all-consuming sorrow a woman will endure for the rest of her life when visited by a tragedy of such magnitude.
A text like this does not lend itself for a light-hearted tune…you see, for all its beauty, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater could have been a melancholy maiden’s nocturnal lament of unrequited love, or a congregation of nuns collectively celebrating their betrothal to celestial bridegroom Jesus of Nazareth; it sounds great and overpowers us with its melodic inventions, but it’s somehow too warm for its purpose. And there’s nothing warm about losing a son.
The soprano who sings Mayerson’s poem on this album does so in a convincing way…ah, well, perhaps Pergolesi died too young to be able to express feelings of this nature.

Ferko, then, is a skilled composer who uses a great variety of vocal techniques for his choral works and doesn’t shy away from blending the tonal with the atonal. I wouldn’t say he is as spectacular as Penderecki the Terrible, or Gubaidulina the Sorceress…but he’s a thorough craftsman, whose clear-headed and sound perception of music may serve as a healthy counterbalance to the mannerisms of, er…some Estonians, perhaps?

Tracklist
01. Introduction [0:01:44.50]
02. 1. Stabat Mater [0:02:35.60]
03. 2. Cujus animam gementem [0:01:22.45]
04. 3. O quam tristis [0:01:03.52]
05. 4. Quae maerebat [0:02:30.58]
06. I. Andromache's Lament [0:07:05.67]
07. 5. Quis est homo [0:00:59.58]
08. 6. Quis non posset [0:00:40.35]
09. 7. Pro peccatis [0:00:51.35]
10. 8. Vidit suum [0:02:35.50]
11. II. The Mother [0:03:57.07]
12. 9. Eia mater [0:02:33.15]
13. 10. Fac ut ardeat [0:01:15.13]
14. 11. Sancta Mater [0:01:28.02]
15. 12. Tui nati [0:01:47.53]
16. III. From 'The Death Cycle Machine' - 1. Layout [0:00:42.05]
17. III. From 'The Death Cycle Machine' - 2. Haiku for an East Asian Scholar [0:00:37.40]
18. III. From 'The Death Cycle Machine' - 3. Ancho y Ajeno [0:00:47.40]
19. III. From 'The Death Cycle Machine' - 4. RSVP [0:01:10.50]
20. 13. Fac me tecum [0:03:51.65]
21. 14. Juxta crucem [0:02:25.15]
22. 15. Virgo virginum [0:01:25.32]
23. 16. Fac ut portem [0:01:46.73]
24. IV. Elegy [0:02:57.35]
25. 17. Fac me plagis [0:00:46.05]
26. 18. Flammis ne [0:00:49.15]
27. 19. Christe cum sit [0:01:33.15]
28. 20. Quando corpus [0:03:10.22]

Performers
His Majestie’s Clerkes
Nancy Gustafson – soprano voice
Anne Heider – conductor