Customer Reviews

Gabrieli in San Marco

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

These analog recordings were made in San Marco in Venice in the spring of 1967, and were legendary in their time. They introduced a large public to the great Renaissance master, in stunning sound. The digital remastering makes them even more spectacular sounding than their original LP release, revealing the rich acoustic in which they were recorded, which was the space for which this music was originally composed.

Alas, the performances on this disc, legendary as they are, do not come up to the level of the recorded sound. The singing throughout is heavy and vibrato laden, textures are unclear and tempos are slow. We have learned much about performance of this music since 1967 and these performances now show their age. However this disc is valuable as a document, to be able to hear this music performed in the space for which it was written.

This is an extraordinary find for the connoisseur of baroque and early church music. Tracks 9 and 14 are some of the most beautiful music I have ever heard. As the jacket quotes from an English visitor of the time (1600), "Nevere in may life hast I heareth such celestial strains as these. Truly, these be the tones that the Almighty himself doth heare."

I had bought this as an LP in "quadrophonic" sound and thoroughly enjoyed it. Yes, it may not be up to modern day recording standards but it is a worthwhile recording nonetheless. I highly recommend it as an intro to Giovanni Gabrieli.

Of the two disks recorded at San Marco, I find this one the more enjoyable for its variety in pieces and arrangement of choral and instumental works; although it's been a while since original recording, I found the sound reproduction exceptional on a good system: Gabrieli's ephemeral sounds on his stage-moving!

These are some of the antiphonal pieces that Giovanni Gabrieli wrote for the two balconies of San Marco in Venice. The recording problems there must have been many, and in reality, were not quite solved. The antiphonal effects are there, but there is a lot of muddy sound, with the whole thing sounding as if through a veil. The performance is "old" style, but I could accept that from 1967. What bothers me is shaky ensemble, with performers unable to overcome the space. They never seem to have understood "watch, don't listen", which is crucial in strange spaces like San Marco. Maybe they couldn't get enough recording time in the space, but there is some terribly ragged ensemble. AND screaming tenors, who aren't quite tuned into the style (although I don't know who was, in those days). BUT, these are good examples of attainable performances of these pieces, and unless you are experienced in early music, and are performing these pieces (with large college forces, maybe), this is probably what your performaces will sound like. Cleaner, I hope.

I got a pleasant surprise when I put this CD on my music system. I recognized it immediately as the CD re-release of a marvelous album that I had thought was long out of print, "The Glory of Gabrieli, Vol. III." In the late 1960s and early '70s, organist E. Power Biggs joined forces with Gregg Smith, the Texas Boy's Choir and a host of others to produce a series of albums spotlighting the music of Giovanni Gabrieli. The albums were all recorded in the basilica of San Marco in Venice, taking advantage of its wonderful acoustics. The first two albums in the series featured a combination of organ, voices and orchestral forces. But in this third volume, Biggs and the orchestra removed themselves to the wings, so to speak, and an a cappella album was released featuring only the voices of the Gregg Smith singers and the Texas Boy's Choir, unaccompanied.

I had an old-fashioned cassette tape pirate copy of this album for many years, but as cassettes would, it ultimately wore out. I then found that, despite my searches, the album was no longer available. I finally caught up with it one day, in a used-record cardboard box at the public library's used book store. I was glad to have it back, but of course it was an old LP, rather beat up and scratched. Now I'm glad to have it once gain, pristine and unscratched on a digitally-remastered CD.

For 35 years I've been collecting music, and this has always been one of my favorite albums. I'm very glad to welcome it back again.