VA - The Antiphonal Music Of Gabrieli (1966, 1968) [2000 SACD]

The combined brass ensembles’ sound was astonishing in its warmth, depth, color, and presence, and Gabrieli’s contrapuntal, antiphonal works (i.e., music composed for instruments divided into two or more “choirs” that play in a call-and-response style) has rarely sounded more mellifluous and golden.
Audiophile Audition Review
Nineteen brass virtuosi from the Philadelphia, Cleveland and Chicago Symphonies were brought together at Philadelphia’s Town Hall for this brass fest recorded in 1966 and 1968. About half of the 32 tracks are devoted to the expected source for early antiphonal music – Giovanni Gabrieli and his Canzonas and Sonatas that placed groups of players in various balconies around St. Mark’s Cathedral in Venice. The rest of the SACD features brass works by Brade, Pezel, De Lassus and Holborne. Two thirds of these works are performed by two of the three brass ensembles spatially separated for the call-and-response effects of these works. The remaining one-third employ all three brass groups for a really spectacular sound.
The original Columbia LPs were full of distortion and are best forgotten. A few years ago Sony Classical reissued the first 13 Gabrieli works on this SACD (paired with an E. Power Biggs album of music for organ and brass) as one of their Masterworks Heritage remastered series. Using 20-bit and SBM, this series set high sonic standards. It also had a printed chart in the notes that was unfortunately missing from the SACD notes: it laid out clearly all 13 tracks, identified which brass ensembles were heard on each one and whether they were located on the left, center or right. A/B comparison of that CD with the new SACD showed a number of improvements, if of a subtle nature: When all the brass blasted together at high volume there was a smearing effect on the CD that was ameliorated greatly on the SACD, with individual voices standing out whereas before they were hidden in the sonic mush. There was more of a sense of the reverberant acoustics of Town Hall, similar to the effect found on most classical HDCD-encoded discs (when properly decoded). Though I had been doing most of the comparisons on only my left and right front speakers with the Cantares surround processor out of the loop, I was moved to fire up the processor and select the UHJ setting. I got a wonderful surround field that with a little adjustment of the front-to-back levels came close to replicating a discrete five-channel recording.- John Sunier


Tracks:

1. Gabrieli: Canzon Septimi Toni No.2 [02:53]
2. Gabrieli: Canzon Duodecimi Toni [03:59]
3. Gabrieli: Canzon a 12 in Echo [03:32]
4. Gabrieli: Sonata Octavi Toni [04:28]
5. Gabrieli: Canzona per Sonare No. 27 [02:52]
6. Gabrieli: Canzon Quarti Toni [04:32]
7. Gabrieli: Canzon a 12 [02:36]
8. Gabrieli: Canzona per Sonare No.28 [01:22]
9. Gabrieli: Sonata Pian’e Forte [04:21]
10. Gabrieli: Canzon Primi Toni [03:26]
11. Gabrieli: Canzon Septimi Toni No. 1 [03:48]
12. Gabrieli: Canzon Noni Toni [03:17]
13. Gabrieli: Canzona per Sonare No. 2 [02:37]
14. Brade: Two Pieces – I. Almand [00:38]
15. Brade: Two Pieces – II. Gaillard [01:11]
16. Pezel: Suite – I. Intrade [01:30]
17. Pezel: Suite – II. Sarabande [02:02]
18. Pezel: Suite – III. Intrade [02:17]
19. Pezel: Suite – IV. Sarabande [02:03]
20. Pezel: Suite – V. Bal [00:35]
21. Pezel: Suite – VI. Courente [01:57]
22. Pezel: Suite – VII. Bal [00:57]
23. Pezel: Suite – VIII. Sarabande [02:14]
24. Pezel: Suite – IX. Gigue [01:27]
25. De Lassus: Providebam Dominum [04:31]
26. Holborne: Suite – I. The Marie-Golde [00:55]
27. Holborne: Suite – II. Night Watch [01:09]
28. Holborne: Suite – III. Patiencia [03:04]
29. Holborne: Suite – IV. The Choisie [01:11]
30. Holborne: Suite – V. Honie Suckle [01:25]
31. Holborne: Suite – VI. Last Will and Testament [03:10]
32. Holborne: Suite – VII. The New-Yeres Gift [00:59]

Personnel:

The Philadelphia Brass Ensemble,
The Cleveland Brass Ensemble,
The Chicago Brass Ensemble.