The Antiphonal Music of Gabrieli [SACD]

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Music reviews of The Antiphonal Music of Gabrieli [SACD]

Music Review: A great find
Rating: 5 Stars

Gabrieli's music consists of canzons and sonatas (his titles for them). A canzon is a very formal piece: it consists of exposition (each of the instruments enters with the theme in formal imitation and contrapuntal fun follows - it's fugue-ish, but I don't know if these sections actually qualify as fugues in technical terms) followed by development (subject fragments enter the conversation in various forms and are played back and forth between the choirs) and then finally a closing section which is a restatement of the beginning (recapitulation, it seems). The sonatas share similar form - unfortunately I'm not sure of the exact similarities and differences. I suspect that what Gabrieli calls a sonata would not fit the later Classical qualifications for being called a sonata, but certainly they share many characteristics. Frescobaldi's music consists of music for organ alone and for combined organ and brass. The organ music is toccatas and what are best called preludes; the remainder is more canzons.

This music is really enjoyable to listen to, for many reasons. First, as the enthusiastic Stereo Review writer wrote upon the initial release of this recording, "Spectacular, spectacular, spectacular. And in case you didn't get the message, SPECTACULAR!". Just in sheer visceral terms, the music certainly is spectacular. The sound is magnificent. The the brass ensembles produce a grand sound which is heightened by the constant interplay between groups. The organ is powerful as well and the combination of organ and brass really is something to behold. Gabrieli is known for, among other things, tremendous cadences in which all parts combine very strongly and they show themselves here. On another level, the music is quite emotionally engaging. Despite being written for brass (well, apparently no specific instrumentation was originally indicated, but "obviously the music calls for the brilliant sonority of brasses", as Biggs tells us) it is not all ceremonial or festive- sounding music (to probably misuse those terms). Some it is very gentle, some of it playful, some of it dark, and of course some it it grand as you would expect. Anyway suffice it to say that the music is expressive beyond what you might think it to be (somehow Frescobaldi's is not quite as engaging to me as Gabrieli's - but I'm sure that's just an issue of taste). The final level of appeal is the music's complexity. Like I said, the music is not all pomp. It's very intricately constructed (maybe I'm the only person this appeals to but I'll keep talking anyway). There is a great deal of fascinating counterpoint which goes on and I like that very much. This music is definitely Renaissance in character, but it is also definitely forward looking and transitional.

The playing is excellent (on both "sections" of the recording, the Gabrieli and the Frescobaldi). The Philadelphia, Chicago, and Cleveland groups have great unity and coherence. The musicians were carefully placed to maximize the antiphonal effect and they succeed brilliantly. Especially if you listen on good equipment, the sound is really dazzling. But to get back to the quality of the playing, these musicians are obviously all very skilled. The instruments all produce very clear and distinguishable tones, so that brass actually demonstrates itself to be quite an effective medium for counterpoint. Biggs is one of my favorite organists and he performs well here as usual. The Boston Brass Ensemble is very good as well (but there's less of a sense of "chemistry" between the players, if that makes any sense - the other three ensembles really play brilliantly together). Technically they're great but what all the above verbiage can't describe is the sense of excitement throughout the recording. There really is music being made here.

The background behind the recording is revealing. Done in three sessions of three hours each, the pieces were rehearsed once or twice and then recorded in another one or two playings (all the more remarkable when you consider that, as Abe Torchinksy tells us in the liner notes, some of the musicians hadn't ever heard of the music before being brought together for this recording). That sense of spontaneity is present throughout (no conductor was present and interpretation was done according to whatever ideas anyone had - the process obviously worked).

The sound is surprisingly good - the remastering was obviously quite successful.

Recommended enthusiastically... man I spend too much time writing these things =)

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