Restored by Mayr expert Frans Hauk from two extant manuscript versions and heard here in its world premiere recording, Simon Mayr’s Stabat mater in F minor was singled out by a contemporary biographer “for its marvelous effect” and “heavenly beauty.” Mayr himself frequently returned to this work, recycling one of its movements in his great Requiem. The song-like Ave maris stella builds on a hymn that dates back to the 8th century. Born in Neuburg an der Donau in 1955, Franz Hauk studied church and school music, with piano and organ, at the Munich Musikhochschule and in Salzburg. In 1988 he took his doctorate with a thesis on church music in Munich and at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Since 1982 he has served as organist at Ingolstadt Minster, and since 1995 also as choirmaster. He has given concerts in Europe and the United States and made a number of recordings. Since October 2002 he has taught in the historical performance and church music department of the Hochschule fur Musik und Theater, Munich. He founded the Simon Mayr Chorus in 2003.
