Marie Jacquot © Julia Wesely
Wiener Symphoniker / Benoit / Jacquot
Poulenc: Stabat mater
Monday
24
November
2025
19:30
Großer Saal
Presented by
Wiener Konzerthausgesellschaft
Ballet and choral music from Paris
»No more clouds, waves, aquariums, undines and nocturnal scents - what we need is music that is at home on earth, music for all days ... perfect, pure, without superfluous ornamentation«, was how the writer Jean Cocteau formulated the programme of the Groupe des Six, a group of composers active in France in the 1920s under the mentorship of Erik Satie. Francis Poulenc was also a member of this group.
Stabat mater
Poulenc came relatively late to choral music, which he considered to be the »best and most credible aspect« of himself. Extremely moved by a pilgrimage to the Black Madonna of Rocamadour, he wrote several sacred works, including the neoclassical Stabat mater in 1950. The Vienna Symphony Orchestra with the Wiener Singakademie and Elsa Benoit conducted by Marie Jacquot perform it for the first time at the Wiener Konzerthaus.
»Petrushka« and »Les animaux modèles«
With this work, Poulenc commemorated his deceased friend, the artist Christian Bérard, whose partner Boris Kochno had worked for the Ballets Russes. This Russian ballet company, directed by Sergei Diaghilev, also performed »Petrushka« in 1911, for which Igor Stravinsky had composed the music. Poulenc was already very impressed by it at a young age. With »Les animaux modèles«, the programme also includes ballet music by Poulenc from 1942.