The Louisville Master Chorale closes their 2013-2014 season performing a trio of pieces by Gioacchino Rossini, Ludwig von Beethoven and Henryk Gorecki. Leading with Stabat Mater, the program features a pre-concert program and lecture with David Paul Gibson.

Stabat Mater is a solemn and profoundly moving composition based on the sorrow of Mary during Christ’s crucifixion. Rossini's operatic genius is evident throughout this engaging and melodic masterpiece. It is accompanied by the second movement Henryk Gorecki’s Symphony of Sorrowful Songs, a piece written in 1976 and distinguished by its haunting themes of motherhood and separation. The program is introduced and balanced by Beethoven’s brilliant Choral Fantasy.