Giovanni Gabrieli
The Glory of Gabrieli

*  Intonations, Mass movements, motets, canzoni, sonatas, and ricercars

E. Power Biggs, organ
The Gregg Smith Singers
The Texas Boys Choir of Fort Worth
The Edward Tarr Brass Ensemble
The Gabrieli Consort La Fenice/Vittorio Negri
Sony 82876-78762-2 Total time: 72:38

Summary for the Busy Executive: A great noise.

More from Sony's "Great Performances" collection.  It culls tracks from
a three-volume series.  I must admit that I've never caught much of the
Sonic Spectacular bug, but my friends who had would use the original LP
as a test piece when they bought new hi-fi equipment.  I bought the LP
because of the repertoire, which sounds a bit like saying I buy Playboy
for the articles.

An immensely popular recording, The Glory of Gabrieli grew out of,
essentially, an indulgence granted by Columbia to their star organist,
E.  Power Biggs.  Biggs, a player whose star has somewhat faded, had a
bug in his ear about recording music in the churches and on the instruments
it was written for or on which the composer had played.  My single
favorite part of the series was an album dedicated to Bach on the Luebeck
organ.  After a successful conclusion to the series (including at least
one very profitable gift edition), Biggs expressed the hope to record
the music of Gabrieli in the Cathedral San Marco.  I don't think anyone
expected to make a lot of money, and they put themselves through a heap
of trouble.  After all, San Marco is in Venice, notoriously inaccessible
to modern transport.  Columbia's Italian staff determined, among other
things, that a new organ would have to be installed.  The Italian
bureaucracy, sacred and secular, had to be tickled, and ensembles from
at least three different countries had to be flown in.  But eventually
all the rough places were made plain, and the recording sessions took
place.  One can't imagine a recording company going through all that
today.

At the time, I bought all three albums, but then any Gabrieli recording
was rarer than it is today.  The sessions took place at a time when HIP
was in its infancy, but some concessions were made.  Sometimes the
instruments were cornetti, sackbuts, and serpents; sometimes, the modern
valved instruments.  As legendary producer John McClure put it, "Some
pieces sounded very beautiful on the zinks and old trombones, while some
needed the extra power and brilliance that would set the basilica's
acoustics ringing." He added, "Being doctrinaire in this matter is often
self-defeating, we have found." However, we should remember that the art
of playing Renaissance instruments has risen considerably since that
time.  The Edward Tarr Brass (a German ensemble, despite the name) was
then one of the few groups with expertise in both types of brass, old
and new.  Certainly, today's producers would meet at least some of these
challenges differently.

Was it all worth it?  Consider that many of these pieces stand among
the earliest whose composers specified the instrumentation.  Before then,
you mainly got only choral parts.  Instrumentation which doubled these
was probably whatever handy had the necessary range.  Also, Gabrieli
designed the music for the specific space of San Marco, with its various
separated choir lofts and its six-to-eight-second reverberation.  Granted,
no recording will identically reproduce the effect of actually being
in that space.  But when I heard the first full forte, all my critical
thinking washed away in the magnificence of the sound.  It may be music
more suitable to singing the praises of the earthly king than of the
heavenly one, but not even Hollywood has caught its sturdy splendor.
Indeed, Hollywood almost always goes so over the top that you can take
refuge in mockery.  Gabrieli, on the other hand, always knows where the
top lies.  Glory indeed.

After all those years, the rawness of the singing and playing struck
me the most, not so much in the quieter numbers, but in the full-out,
knock-you-on-your-tail parts.  I hadn't noticed that before, and very
likely what I've heard since then, so much more musically penetrating,
has given rise to that impression.  On the other hand, keeping all those
forces, separated by so many yards in the cathedral, anywhere close to
rhythmically together must have constituted quite a feat. You can hear
a slight raggedness now and again, but generally speaking everything is
as snug as a kid in his blankie.  That may have also sacrificed refinement.

Still, this is not a disc - or music, for that matter - for those who
must have subtlety.  For a simpler soul like me, this music will thrill
your body, if not your mind.  The rest of you can read The New York
Review of Books.

Steve Schwartz

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