Search - Giovanni Gabrieli, Jansen, Tamminga :: Gabrieli: Sonate e Canzoni / Concerto Palatino

Giovanni Gabrieli's magnificent works for two or more "choirs" of brass instruments playing in dialogue are perennial favorites of brass ensembles--modern symphonic brass players as well as early instrument specialists. Yet Gabrieli was a renowned organist as well, and his instrumentalists at San Marco in Venice often played from the organ lofts. Unfortunately, modern performances of Gabrieli's instrumental music often de-emphasize the instrument (using only modest chamber organs) or forgo it altogether. This is in part because the two famously sweet-sounding organs Gabrieli played in San Marco have long since disappeared; luckily, a pair of organs from the period have survived at the Basilica of San Petronio in Bologna. Concerto Palatino, the prince of Renaissance brass ensembles, has made this recording at San Petronio so as to restore the organ to its rightful place in Gabrieli's ensemble music. The Basilica's organs are indeed sweet-sounding, yet with a surprising range of color--from gentle flutelike tone and nasal reeds to (in a couple of double-choir brass sonatas played on the two organs) a timbre very like the antique brass instruments. The recorded sound is excellent: close enough to keep Gabrieli's intricate writing clear while capturing the Basilica's famous reverberance. Concerto Palatino's playing here doesn't quite catch fire the way it can when they play with a conductor (such as Konrad Junghänel or Andrew Parrott), but it is immaculate, sensitive, and elegant. --Matthew Westphal