With its moving account of the Passion, the Stabat mater dates, as a poem, from the end of the 13th century and is a product of the religious revival spearheaded by the Franciscans. The text soon became a part of the liturgy of the Passion but was also sung at private services, especially those held by various lay communities in the Italian-speaking world, where it was treated initially as a Gregorian chant but later also found in freer settings. In 1727 Pope Benedict XIII decreed that it should be used as a sequence and hymn on the Feast of the Seven Dolours on the Friday before Holy Week. Yet the wealth of emotions implied by the words inevitably invited a musical setting that went lar beyond anything appropriate to liturgical use, with the result that the l8th century spawned not only choral and polyphonic settings but also numerous virtuoso versions involving vocal soloists: suffice it to mention the names of Vivaldi and Pergolesi. Other composers, such as Joseph Haydn, divided the text between soloists and chorus. Among settings of the Stabat mater that were widely performed in their own day are those by Caldara, Alessandro Scarlatti, Steffani, Tuma and Gazzaniga, although it was, of course, Pergolesi's version that enjoyed the greatest popularity, being performed repeatedly throughout much of Europe and inspiring countless later settings. Haydn, too, must have known it, since a copy of the score was owned by Eisenach Parish Church during his lifetime.

Since the Counterreformation, the world of sacred music not only in Imperial Vienna but also in the monarchy's courts and monasteries had been marked by formal pluralism. Lavishly scored Masses and vesper psalms had a regular place in the liturgy, while Grabmusiken - musical meditations on religious themes intended to stress the penitential character of the age were often performed during lent.
At Eisenstadt, the Esterházy court orchestra under its conductor Gregor Joseph Werner had performed such Grabmusiken on a regular basis since 1729. Haydn was appointed Werner's deputy in 1761 but it was only on the latter's death in 1766 that he had an opportunity to write large-scale sacred vocal works. His Stabat mater of 1767 is his first work of this kind and one, moreover, that served to establish his reputation as a vocal composer out side his own immediate sphere of influence. It would appear from a petition of 20 March 1768 in which the composer asked for leave of absence in order to superintend a planned performance in Vienna that the work received its first performance on Good Friday 1767: according to the terms of his appointment all new works first had to be presented to his employer. It was not until 1771 that Haydn conducted the first documented performance at Vienna’s new1y inaugurated Basilica Maria Treu of the Piarists (Piaristenkirche).
From Vienna the work set out on its triumphant progress across the rest of Europe Copies in numerous music libraries, including those in Rome, Naples, Madrid, Paris and London, in addition to printed editions in Paris and London, attest to the piece’s extraordinary popularity. From 1781 until the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789 it was regularly performed at the "Concerts Spirituels" in Paris, and it was here that the custom evolved of dividing the work into two sections in the manner of an oratorio. Numerous copies, generally set to German words, have also survived from the Protestant German-speaking world, including a setting by Johann Adam Hiller, who performed the work at Leipzig's University Church in 1779 with a text newly written for the occasion, Weint ihr Augen heißs Tränen.Many of these copies include additions and adaptations by other hands. This also applies to the introduction of a second chorus in the "Virgo virginurn praeclara”, a change generally attributed to Hiller and documented by surviving sources from around 1774 onwards. At the end of each half of the work, the chorus was originally restricted to the tutti passages alone but was later also entrusted with brief interjections during the solo passages, a practice which, no doubt intended to enhance the workßs dramatic impact, soon caught on, evidently with the composer's blessing in 1803 Sigismund Neukomm incorporated these changes into his own edition of the score, which he prepared on Haydn’s instructions and under his supervision and which, with its more elaborate instrumentation, was aimed at bringing the work into line with developments in contemporary taste. It is this version that has been traditionally used since 1774 and that forms the basis of the present recording.

As is clear from the stylistic resources that it deploys, Haydn's Stabat mater is still close in spirit to the pre-Classical period, an age known variously as the Age of Sensibility and the Sturm und Drang. In order to add to its intensity of expression, Haydn often uses daring harmonies and does not shy away from extreme and unusual chromaticisms. Seven of its fourteen movenrents are in minor keys, which lend themselves to the depiction of pain and anguish. The graphic nature of the writing allows even today's listener to appreciate something of the significance formerly attributed to the different tonalities, with their characteristic ability to express particular "affects". Haydn enhances this effect by means of his instrumentation. using english horns, for example, instead of oboes for the two sections in E flat major (“O quam tristis" and "Virgo virginum”).
In keeping with the solemn nature of the work, slow tempi predominate, with a number of tempo markings such as Lachrymoso and Lento e mesto helping to underscore the piece's sombre character. All the more effective, therefore, is the sense of contrast provided by the fast tempi of thc bass aries "Pro peccatis" and “Flammis orci". Typically Haydnesque is the impressive melodic writing, while the use of dance-like triple-time rhythms in passages such an the "Virgo virginum" quartet brings a breath of Austrian folk music into the piece. The work's architectural structure is determined by the alternation of solo and choral sections: the beginning and end are notable for their combination of solo voice and chorus, while the first half is brought to an end by the chorus “Eia mater". Following the fourth three-line stanza, the middle of this first half is marked by a further chorus. The same order is repeated in the second half, except that on this occasion the chorus is joined by the four soloists. The choral parts are arranged around these structural pillars, so that the work as a whole acquires a self-contained symmetry which was important to Haydn's coutemporaries, with their highly developed sense of formal stnrcture. Apart from the four soloists and chorus, the work is scored only for the usual strings, bassoon, two oboes and two english horns. Although drawing on only modest resources, Haydn was none the less able to create a work whose touching intensity not only impressed his contemporaries and paved the way for his reputation as a composer of vocal music but cannot fail to move today's responsive listener.