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Editorial Reviews

The big box sets from the Dutch label Brilliant sometimes sacrifice coherence for volume, but this one, originally released on the Archiv imprint, offers discrete performances that you couldn't get in a smaller release, and it's well worth the budget price. The contents are more specific than the title would indicate; you actually do get a reconstruction of a Vespers service from a presumably well-off Venetian church of the early seventeenth century, one well-off enough to mount performances with a full choir and an ensemble with viols, cornett, tenor and bass sackbutts, and a continuo group. Then there is an Easter mass, assembled according to the same principles, and finally, on disc five, a reconstruction of a concert given at the Venetian church of San Rocco in 1608, featuring exclusively music by Giovanni Gabrieli. This was ostensibly a secular concert, but one of the many insights the listener can take away from this project is that the rise of the Baroque language blurred the sacred/secular boundary; there are keyboard pieces based on sacred models as well as organ polyphony, suitable for church but derived from secular songs. The two liturgies, the compilers concede, are entirely speculative, and they include music from a period spanning almost 75 years. That's a bit much, considering that according to the booklet itself music that was 50 years old was considered obsolete at this time. Would music by Cavalli have appeared with that of Giovanni Gabrieli in the same service? Perhaps not, but the set will still serve to introduce listeners to the huge variety of competing styles that flourished in the water-laced city. The entire presentation gives the listener a feel for how the motets and early sacred concertos were actually used in services, interspersed with chant antiphons, psalm settings, and instrumental music. The performances by the Gabrieli Consort Choir and Players under Paul McCreesh are clear and unfussy, which is ideal for a project of this nature. An excellent choice for classes and general collections. James Manheim, All Music Guide

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