The work was composed for a Neapolitan confraternity, the Cavalieri della Vergine dei Dolori di San Luigi al Palazzo, which had also commissioned a Stabat Mater from Alessandro Scarlatti. Pergolesi composed it during his final illness from tuberculosis in a Franciscan monastery in Pozzuoli, along with a Salve Regina setting, and, as it is said, finished it right before he died.

To be performed by Shannon Miller, Annabel Williams and Nicholas Prozzillo.