Giovanni Gabrieli

1. Intonazione Dell'undecimo Tono, C 249
2. Audite Principes A 16, C 123
3. Introitus (chant)

Cipriano de Rore

4. Kyrie (missa "praeter Rerum Seriem" A 7)
5. Gloria (missa "praeter Rerum Seriem" A 7)
6. Oratio (chant)
7. Prophetia (chant)
8. Epistola (chant)

Giovanni Gabrieli

9. Canzon Noni Toni A 12, C 183
10. Evangelium (chant)
11. Credo (missa "praeter Rerum Seriem" A 7)
12. Intonazione Del Settimo Tono, C 245
13. Salvator Noster A 15, C 80
14. Praefatio (chant)

Cipriano de Rore

15. Sanctus (missa "praeter Rerum Seriem" A 7)
16. Toccata

Giovanni Gabrieli

17. O Jesu Mi Dulcissime A 8, C 56
18. Pater Noster (chant)

Cipriano de Rore

19. Agnus Dei (missa "praeter Rerum Seriem" A 7)

Giovanni Gabrieli

20. Canzon Duodecimi Toni (n 3) A 10, C 179
21. Postcommunio - Benedictio (chant)

Giovanni Gabrieli, arr. H. Keyte

22. Quem vidistis pastores, after C 77


Gabrieli Consort and Players
Paul McCreesh - conductor

McCreesh is a long-standing master of the scholarly-but-enjoyable reconstruction. He first came to the notice of the record-collecting public with another Venetian reconstruction for the Virgin label, A Venetian Coronation 1595, music for the enthronement of the Doge, which still retains its full-price place in the catalogue (7 59006 2). After one more such reconstruction, that of the Burgundian Banquet du Vœu (deleted but well worth searching for), Virgin let him slip through their fingers to DG Archiv, who recorded him in a reconstructed Venetian Vespers service, another highly recommendable recording which, inexplicably, never seems to have caught on as well as the other reconstructions (Monteverdi, Rigatti, etc, now at bargain-price on 476 1868, 2 CDs for around £7-£8 in the UK).

Recordings of Schütz’s Christmas Vespers (463 046-2) and Bach’s Epiphany Mass (457 631-2, 2 CDs) followed, as did the present Venetian Christmas CD. A DVD of Christmas in Rome (Palestrina, Vivaldi’s Gloria, etc, in collaboration with The English Concert/Trevor Pinnock, on 073 4361) completes the series to date apart from the items contributed from his various Christmas recordings to The Baroque Christmas Album (DG 477 5762). (Are there any more in the pipeline?)

The Doge and Signoria of Venice processed from the Ducal Palace to St Mark’s at 2.30 p.m. on the afternoon of Christmas Eve. During the next six and a half hours they heard Vespers, Compline, Matins, during which the lights of the basilica were gradually illuminated, and finally the first of the three Masses of the Nativity, brought forward by papal dispensation from midnight. The Vespers and Matins would have received elaborate musical accompaniment from an augmented group of musicians – one reviewer even, mistakenly, has described the whole event as ‘Christmas Vespers’ – but the main musical delights would have been reserved for the Mass.

This CD presents an informed attempt to reconstruct the music of that Mass. There are three elements: the plainchant, the polyphonic setting, and the interspersed instrumental and choral music. The chant employed at Venice was different in some respects from the norm of the Roman rite, though less so than that of the Ambrosian rite at Milan and much less so than the Mozarabitic rite preserved at Toledo. The Venetian chants are contained in the Graduale del Tesoro and these have been employed in this recording.

The polyphonic setting, Cipriano de Rore’s Missa Præter rerum seriem, is a cantus firmus work, based on a motet by Josquin; de Rore was himself briefly maestro di capella at St Mark’s and Monteverdi is known both to have preserved several such stile antico settings at Venice in the early seventeenth century and to have had a high opinion of the music of Cipriano. It is an appropriate choice here because it fits the festal occasion, yet contrasts with the more flamboyant music of Gabrieli and both contrast with the plainsong propers. The text of the original Josquin 6-part motet refers to the appearance of god-as-man beyond the natural order of things: Præter rerum seriem / parit deum hominem / virgo mater. A score of the motet is available online; another (more authentic?) version is also available from the same source.

Gabrieli himself provides the third element. The opening organ Intonazione is meditative and restrained, but the 16-part setting of Audite principes (don’t you just hate it when the computer thinks it’s smarter than you and changes principes to principles?) which follows really gets us into the festive mood, with its invocation to the princes and inhabitants of the earth to give ear to the news that the Saviour is born. They could hardly fail to give ear (auribus percipite) to the battery of cornets, sackbuts, dulcian, etc., which accompany the three soloists, quietly at first but soon at full blast. This really is Gabrieli at his rip-roaring best and it sets the scene superbly when it is as well performed as here. The Venetian historian Francesco Sansovino records that the original congregation felt that they had heard no finer music, but what we hear on this recording must at least run those original performers a very close second. In fact, though we can never know, they almost certainly excel them. The high parts were presumably originally sung by castrati whose sound, of course, cannot be reproduced, but the four falsettists on this recording (no female voices) do a good job of replacing them. One of them, Robert Harre Jones, also plays one of the organ parts. My personal idea of Heaven leans towards English Tudor polyphony, Taverner and Sheppard in particular, but the de Rore/Gabrieli combination here comes pretty close – listen to track 13, Gabrieli’s Salvator noster, and you’ll be sold on it. The recording just breaks the 80-minute barrier but you’ll hardly notice the passage of time.

The other Gabrieli items are similarly exuberant and similarly well performed. The Canzon noni toni replaces the usual Gradual, another Venetian custom; another organ Intonazione and Salvator noster (Our Saviour is born this day), provide the Offertory, with the vocalists again wreathed about with cornetts, sackbuts and organs. Similarly an organ Toccata (improvised) and Gabrieli’s O Jesu mi dulcissime (O my sweetest Jesus), with singers and organs only, mark the Elevation of the Host. The Canzon duodecimi toni at the Communion and Quem vidistis pastores (Whom saw ye, O Shepherds) after the Blessing, round off a very satisfying recording, the full panoply of brass joining the singers again for the final item. This, like most of the Gabrieli insertions, is divided into parts for three ‘choirs’; only O Jesu mi dulcissime and the Canzon duodecimi toni are for two ‘choirs’, which rather tends to support the modern suspicion that the traditional concept of antiphonal performance at St Mark’s is something of an over-simplification. The illustration on the cover of the Prætorius CD seems to suggest a similar three-choir arrangement but I don’t wish to get into deep scholarly waters here.

Some of the elements of the reconstruction are controversial. Quem vidistis, which seems to have survived in incomplete form, has been extensively re-worked by Hugh Keyte, convincingly to my ears at least. As performed here, it provides a fitting conclusion to a glorious recording.

Both A Venetian Christmas and the Lutheran Christmas Mass are superbly performed, excellently recorded and endowed with scholarly and informative notes by John Bettley and Paul McCreesh himself. Brinkburn Abbey makes a good substitute acoustic-wise for St Mark’s; Roskilde is, of course, an ideal venue on the other CD. I couldn’t begin to choose between them, so I recommend that you buy both. If you hurry, you will find that one on-line retailer has a special offer on Archiv CDs at close to DM’s target price, £7 plus postage, but you will have to get a move on. Both these CDs are too good to save for Christmas; order them both now. ---Brian Wilson, musicweb-international.com

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1. 	Giovanni Gabrieli 	Canzon primi toni à 8 	3:51 	
2. 	Giovanni Gabrieli 	Canzon vigesimasettima à 8 	3:02 	
3. 	Giovanni Gabrieli 	Sonata à 3 	3:57 	
4. 	Giovanni Gabrieli 	Canzon „La Spritata“ à 4 	2:09 	
5. 	Giovanni Gabrieli 	Canzon à 6 	4:22 	
6. 	Andrea Gabrieli 	Aria della Battaglia à 8 	10:20 	
7. 	Giovanni Gabrieli 	„Quem vidistis pastores?“ 	9:25 	
8. 	Giovanni Gabrieli 	Canzon IV à 6 	3:12 	
9. 	Giovanni Gabrieli 	„O Jesu mi dulcissime“ 	4:40 	
10. 	Giovanni Gabrieli 	Canzon per sonar à 4 	1:49 	
11. 	Giovanni Gabrieli 	„Jubilate Deo“ 	4:56 	
12. 	Giovanni Gabrieli 	„In ecclesiis“ 	7:58 	
13. 	Giovanni Gabrieli 	„Timor et tremor“ 	6:17 	
14. 	Giovanni Gabrieli 	„O magnum mysterium“ 	3:42 	
15. 	Giovanni Gabrieli 	Canzon XII à 8 	3:55

Tracks [1] - [6]: 
John Scott - organ
Philip Jones Brass Ensemble
Philip Jones - conductor

Tracks [7] - [15]: 
Thomas Elias - treble
Charles Brett - countertenor
Peter Hall, William Kendall - tenor
Ian Caddy - bass
Richard Farnes, Stephen Layton - organ
The King's College Choir of Cambridge
Stephen Cleobury - conductor 

This is a stunning recording of great power and amplitude, apt to reflect in your mind all the grandeur and glory of the Venetian Republic in its art and music. The authenticity lobby will probably wince. But here, if nowhere else, a case can be made that our so-called authenticity is nothing more than data and impressions received from paper manuscripts.

The actual reports from visitors (a long text of an Englishman present at one of these public "concerts" is included with the leaflet) is of an experience of such overwhelming splendour as to silence all objections.

It is lunacy to expect anyone today to be "overwhelmed" by the stingy menus - 10-15 musicians and the same number of singers cooped up in a chamber and recorded with close miking.

In my books, this is falsification of the spirit of public music of those eras. To be at least moderately truthful, the aura of those occasions must be reproduced. If this isn't done, you can toss the word "authentic" in the garbage bin. It is meaningless.

Thanks, therefore, the Denis Stevens, his forces and engineers for the attempt. The forces are not indeed of symphonic breadth: The English Chamber Orchestra, the Jones Brass Ensemble, the Ambrosian Singers, an Organist. But the recording was produced in a church hall with enormous reverberation and splendidly well captured. So its sounds massive, even colossal at times - as it should.

Moreover the musicians invest a hefty dose of enthusiasm, even passion in their work.

The music is roughly equally divided between Andrea Gabrieli and his nephew Giovanni. The latter was of course far most adventurous and grand than his uncle, so his music is far more interesting. But good use is made by the conductor of the opportunity to exhibit the polychoral texture of the works by disporting them on the two empora of the cathedral, from where they can toss each other the polyphonal echo effects.

(By the way: Andrea was a pupil of the late Burgundian master Adriaan Willaert, who worked at St. Marks (Cipriano de Rore was also there for a time); Andrea in turn sent his nephew to Germany for studies under Orlandus Lassus. A generation later Heinrich Schütz returned the compliment by studying with Giovanni at Venice. After this the 30 years war intervened and the German-Venetian connection broke off).

Highly recommended for an "authentic" feast of Venetian celebratory music! ---Jurgen Lawrenz, amazon.com

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Giovanni GABRIELI 
1. Fuga sul IX Tono [2:34]
2. In Ecclesiis a 14 (C 78) [7:26]
3. Sonata No.19 à 15 (C212) - Sonata No.19 à 15 (C212) [5:09]
4. Suscipe, clementissime Deus à 12 (C70) - Suscipe, clementissime Deus à 12 (C70) [4:55]
5. Canzona No.14 à 10 (C207) - Canzona No.14 à 10 (C207) [2:51]
6. Buccinate in neomenia tuba à 19 (C84) - Buccinate in neomenia tuba à 19 (C84) [3:38]
7. Intonazione del nono tono (C247) - Intonazione del nono tono (C247) [0:40]
8. Domine Deus Meus a 6 (C 127) [7:52]

Bartolomeo BARBARINO 
9. Audi, Dulcis Amica Mea [3:45]

Giovanni GABRIELI
10. Sonata con tre violini (XXI from Canzoni et Sonate, 1615) [3:51]

Bartolomeo BARBARINO
11. Ardens est cor meum [2:44]

Giovanni GABRIELI
12. Timor et tremor, motet for 6 voices (1615) [6:44]
13. Intonazione del duodecimo tono, for organ, C. 250 [0:33]
14. Jubilate Deo, motet for 10 voices [4:40]
15. Sonata No. 18, for 14 parts [6:14]
16. Misericordia tua, Domine, motet for 12 voices [4:15]
17. Sonata No. 20, for 22 parts [6:22]
18. Magnificat for 33 voices (incomplete) [5:55]

Gabrieli Consort
Timothy Roberts – organ
Fred Jacobs, Paula Chateauneuf – chitarrone
David Hurley – falsetto
Paul McCreesh - conductor

The words ‘Venice’ and ‘splendour’ were simply made to go together and are certainly brought together in the latest recording by the Gabrieli Consort and Players entitled “Music for San Rocco”. The CD is dedicated to an exploration of the vocal and instrumental music of Giovanni Gabrieli, who composed many works for the Confraternity of San Rocco, with just a couple of contributions from the otherwise unknown Bartolomeo Barbarino. He was a virtuoso falsettist who is thought to have performed at the sumptuous feast of music held in honour of St Roch in 1608 of which a remarkably full eye-witness account survives among Coryats Crudities (1611).

Indeed, Paul McCreesh and his team of advisers have taken Thomas Coryat’s description of the 1608 festivities as the starting-point for this concert programme (the music described by Coryat may have formed part of a Vespers service – it’s not clear) which was performed – and videoed – in the magnificent Scuola Grande di San Rocco, famous for its sequence of paintings by Tintoretto. The visual sumptuousness of the interior of the Scuola is well captured on the video, although it suffers from the perennial problem of filmed concerts: a too-rapid sequence of camera shots. I’d much rather the camera lingered longer on the paintings without jumping every few seconds from a soloist’s profile to a sackbut player’s embouchure to a theorbist’s fingers. Nevertheless, the close-ups of the Tintorettos (identified in the booklet provided with the video) to the accompaniment of Gabrieli’s music are certainly an aesthetic feast which surely helps to recapture something of Coryat’s experience. (On the video, art historian Edwin Mullins eloquently adds his thoughts on Tintoretto, and Paul McCreesh justifies, against a lot of background tourist-type noises, the choice of music for his reconstruction of the event.) You will, I suspect, want to listen to the music on your CD player to get the best sound quality (even with a stereo television the results were disappointingly boxy), although it takes skilful manipulation of the remote control to synchronize the video and CD players.

The programme explores a wide range of works by Gabrieli, from the more intimate motets with organ accompaniment right through the spectrum to the extraordinary 33-part Magnificat reconstructed for the occasion by Hugh Keyte. The sheer magnificence of the sound of massed cornetts and sackbuts, blending so harmoniously with the voices, clearly struck Coryat, and is equally irresistible the best part of four centuries later. This is where the Gabrieli Consort and Players came in some years ago when one could only wonder at McCreesh’s logistical abilities in bringing together the required number of chamber organs and so on (“A Venetian Coronation, 1595”, Virgin Classics, 5/90).

The group have, of course, gone from strength to strength, and have explored a wide range of repertory, but they clearly retain a strong affinity with Gabrieli’s music. The singing and playing are quite superb, securely and compellingly flamboyant. It’s difficult to single out individuals from such a high-powered and well-integrated team, but I think I must mention David Hurley who sings the remarkable solo motets by Barbarino with great poise. The cornetts and sackbuts really come into their own in the purely instrumental items such as Gabrieli’s Sonata XVIII but their contribution throughout is vital to the success of the recording.

It is hard to imagine this fine recording of Gabrieli’s music being superseded for some time to come; the video is a luxurious, and very welcome, bonus. For the sheer splendour of the music, and the excellence of the performances, this recording is a must, a real five-star achievement. --Gramophone Magazine, arkivmusic.com

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    1 Dulcis Jesu (a 20) 7:42
    2 Sonata pian e forte (a 8) 5:18
    3 Jubilate Deo (a 8) 4:16
    4 Sonata (a 14) 6:04
    5 O Jesu mi dulcissime (a 8) 4:51
    6 Canzon (a 12) 3:25
    7 Hic est filius Dei (a 18) 7:10
    8 Sonata con tre violini 4:14
    9 Sonata (a 22) 7:24
    10 Miserere mei Deus (a 4) / Gloria Patri (a 8) 14:31
    11 Canzon in echo duodecimi toni (a 10) 4:33
    12 Audite principes (a 16) 6:23

Taverner Consort, Choir and Players
Andrew Parrott – conductor

The works of the Italian composer Giovanni Gabrieli (ca. 1557-1612) mirror the transition from the 16th-century Renaissance style to the 17th-centurybaroque. His compositions were very influential on Italian and German masters.

Giovanni Gabrieli was born in Venice. He was associated with the court chapel of Roland de Lassus in Munich (1576-1580). Despite this important contact, the formative influence on the young Giovanni was his uncle Andrea Gabrieli, whose career as composer and organist anticipated his own. Giovanni's devotion to Andrea is witnessed by a collection of concerti (1587) issued by the younger man from among his own works and those of the older man, dead but a year.

Like his uncle, Giovanni worked in the Cathedral of St. Mark in Venice, first as deputy to the famed master Claudio Merulo (1584), then as second organist (1585), and finally as first organist (1586). He also composed vocal and instrumental pieces for church and state festivities and taught a young generation of composers the new musical idioms of the baroque. He died in Venice on Aug. 12, 1612.

Only a few of Gabrieli's secular vocal pieces have survived. But a collection of madrigals by his student Heinrich Schütz, printed in 1611 as the fruits of an apprenticeship with Gabrieli, suggests that the teacher was deeply interested in the genre. Among Gabrieli's madrigals is the eight-voice Lieto godea for two choruses. Here, as in the sacred pieces, antiphonal effects, created by means of vertical, chordal combinations, replace the linear movement of the older polyphonists.

Many more of Gabrieli's instrumental pieces have survived, including numerous canzonas, ricercars, and sonatas. Some early canzonas such as La Spiritata are conventional, sectional pieces in imitative, multithematic polyphony. Several of the monothematic ricercars, on the other hand, are virtually forerunners of the latebaroque fugue. Of particular interest is Gabrieli's Sonata piano e forte, the first composition ever to bear this title. In addition to marking dynamics throughout the individual parts, the composer prescribed the instrumentation of the sonata—a novel departure from Renaissance practice, in which instrumentation was usually an ad libitum matter. Among his late instrumental pieces is a Sonata con tre violini e basso se piace, for which the master made the decisive turn to the basso continuo, the foundation voice of most baroque music.

Of all Gabrieli's works, first place must go to the motets. Polychoral writing (cori spezzati), as promulgated by Adrian Willaert and continued by Andrea Gabrieli, found its most brilliant exponent in Giovanni Gabrieli. In his collection Sacrae symphoniae (1597) there were motets for six to sixteen parts and arranged for one to four choruses. For these works he replaced the older, imitative, melismatic polyphony of the Franco-Flemish school by syllabic, harmonic writing. Bass parts moving in fourths and fifths supported separated choirs responding antiphonally to one another in short, declamatory phrases. For Gabrieli, who designed his creations for large spaces, traditional counterpoint was less important than dramatic changes in texture and dynamics.

Gabrieli's second volume of Sacrae symphoniae, printed posthumously (1615), contains early as well as late pieces in the new concerted idiom. Characteristic of the late compositions are the juxtaposition of voices and instruments, virtuoso solo writing, and the basso continuo.

The motet In ecclesiis reveals most of the innovations of Gabrieli's late style: solos and duets supported by organ (basso continuo) or instrumental ensemble; a solo quartet of voices responding to or joining the chorus; and instrumental ensembles accompanying the singers or playing independent sinfonie. With such a work resplendent with color, Gabrieli helped inaugurate a new musical epoch that was carried forward by many 17th-century Roman masters and, even more significantly, by the Germans Heinrich Schütz and Michael Praetorius. ---yourdictionary.com

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1. Toccata prima pro Organo 
2. Cantate Domino a 6 
3. Canzon per sonar primi toni a 8 
4. In ecclesiis a 14 
5. Sonata pian e forte a 8 
6. Miserere mei Deus a 6 
7. Sancta Maria succurre miseris a 7 
8. Exaudi Deus a 7 
9. Canzon a 8 
10. Deus qui beatum Marcum a 10 
11. Canzon a 10 
12. Beata es virgo Maria a 6 
13. Sancta et immaculate virginitatis a 8 
14. Canzon in echo a 10 
15. Maria virgo a 10 
16. Canzon fa-sol-la-re a8 
17. Hic est filius Dei a 18 
18. Applause

Gesualdo Consort Amsterdam
Harry van der Kamp - director

Oltremontano
Wim Becu – conductor

Tage alter Musik,   Dominikanerkirche Regensburg, 27.05.2012
FM broadcast BR-Klassik, 30.07.2012

19. Canzon septimi toni für Blechbläser (for brass)
20. O Jesu mi dulcissime (Choir)
21. Canzon 'La Spiritata' für Blechbläser (for brass)

NDR Chor, NDR Brass 
Philipp Ahmann – conductor
St. Johanniskirche, Hamburg-Harvestehude, 19.02.2012
FM broadcast NDR-Kultur, 06.05.2012

After 1587 Giovanni’s principal publications were the two immense Sacrae symphoniae of 1597 and 1615 (printed posthumously), both of which contained purely instrumental music for church use or massive choral and instrumental motets for the liturgy. Like his uncle, he usually conceived the music for separated choirs but showed an increasing tendency to specify which instruments were to be used and which choirs were to consist of soloists and full choir, as well as to distinguish the musical style of each, thus initiating a completely new approach to the creation of musical colour and orchestration. ---britannica.com

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1. Canzon duodecimi toni a 10
2. Canzon primi toni a 8
3. Canzon primi toni a 10
4. Toccata quinti toni			play
5. Canzon duodecimi toni a 10
6. Canzon quarti toni a 15
7. Canzon duodecimi toni a 10
8. Toccata
9. Sonata pian’ e forte a 8, alla bassa
10. Canzon septimi toni a 8
11. Toccata				play
12. Canzon septimi toni a 8
13. Canzon in echo duodecimi toni a 10
14. Canzon duodecimi toni a 8
15. Canzon in echo duodecimi toni a 10
16. Canzon septimi et octavi toni a 12
17. Sonata octavi toni a 12
18. Canzon in echo duodecimi toni a 10, per concertar con l’organo
19. Intonazione noni toni
20. Canzon noni toni a 8
21. Canzon noni toni a 12

His Majestys Sagbutts and Cornetts
Timothy Roberts – director, moderator.

The only complete recording of the Sacræ Symphoniæ of 1597 on period instruments. The performances are very satisfactory and there are some very attractive sounds on this recording. Up to eight cornetts are used (in two pieces) and twelve trombones (sackbuts) feature in another work. A few organ works are included to break up the program a little. My only complaint it that some of the pieces are transposed down by a 4th. This really doesn't need to happen with this music - it is an option, of course - but why was it done here? A couple of my favourite canzonas sound very dark as a result. I enjoy this recording but it isn't one I'd listen all in one sitting. Rather, this is a CD to 'dip into'. Let us hope that Concerto Palatino or Musica Fiata tackle this landmark collection of music some time! ---Steven Guy. Australia

The very best thing about this recording is that it is another offering by the superb His Majesty's Sagbutts and Cornetts, a group specializing in Renaissance period music and instruments, who has never failed to offer an excellent rendition of the works they perform. Aside from that, my primary interest as an old music amateur is that this is both a composer and two genres which are not widely known, so having an excellent realization of both, not to mention the usually superb Hyperion packaging and recording, is a definite treat. ---B. Marold

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01  Sancta et immaculata virginitas    3:08
02  O magnum mysterium    3:25
03  Nunc Dimittis    3:52
04  Angelus ad pastores    2:55
05  O Jesu mi Dulcissime    7:07
06  Exaudi Deus    3:26
07  Hodie completi sunt    5:17
08  O Domine Jesu Christe    5:36
09  Canzona quarti toni a 15    4:03
10  Inclina Domine    3:28

René Clemencic - Organ
Franz Eibner – Organ
Anton Heiller – Organ
Herbert Tachezi – Organ
Orchestra & Choir of the Gabrieli Festival
Edmond Appia – conductor

The SACD packaging nowhere tells the date, but the original LP cover (which can be accessed online) proclaims that the recording was made at the Gabrieli Festival in Venice in 1957. With this release, the record industry took one of its first, tentative steps toward unleashing the vast baroque repertory upon a hungry public. Many more recordings would eventually appear from the 17th century, the century of Cavalieri, Cassini, Peri, Monteverdi, Gesualdo, Frescobaldi, Landi, van Eyck, Schütz, Lulli, Charpentier, Buxtehude, Pachelbel, Biber, Purcell and so many others. Gabrieli has almost been swamped by the embarrassment of subsequent riches, but this Gabrieli recording helped open the way for all of that.

Naturally the recorded sound has been bettered by others. Of special note in this repertory is the advantage provided by multi-channel recording to the four-choir music of Venice. But for its time, this recording was state of the art, and it has been lovingly mastered to SACD. It has never sounded better, and there won't be a better transfer than this one. So I take away just one point from the sonics to defer to the fine competition. Many have played this well, but hardly better, so I take nothing away from the performance.

PS--One of the several organists on this disc is the Austrian Anton Heiller, who went on to record a selection of Bach pieces for the same company in 1962. That disc has also been released on SACD, and is still available at a little higher price than this one. I have not heard the Bach disc, but the organ interludes on the Gabrieli disc are very pleasing sonically, and bode well for the sonics of the other. ---Joseph Ponessa, sa-cd.net

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