Mary the mother of Jesus has been celebrated across many art forms, especially in countless paintings from the middle ages onwards, and in Marian music written by composers of every epoch up to the present. But the other Mary conventionally regarded as having been present at Christ’s crucifixion is a much harder figure to pin down, for across the centuries Mary Magdalene has been seen as one of Christ’s closest friends and followers, as a saint, a muse, and even as a meretrix – the word used for a courtesan in Ancient Rome.
Maria Mater Meretrix, the evening-long sequence of vocal and instrumental pieces devised by Patricia Kopatchinskaja and Anna Prohaska, brings the two Marys together, comparing and contrasting the ways in which they have been depicted across nine centuries of music; a performance with the violinist and soprano joined by Ensemble Resonanz was the last event in the Barbican’s Kopatchinskaja Artist Spotlight series. It’s a thoughtfully put together collection, beautifully paced and presented, and taking in 14 composers, from Hildegard of Bingen to George Crumb and György Kurtág, all performed with stylishness, verve and just a touch of theatricality by these superb artists.
