Cappella Marciana, Marco Gemmani - First Vespers of Christmas for Choir and Orchestra (2023)

The CD contains the first recording of the First Christmas Eve Vespers in the Church of San Marco in Venice with music by Baldassare Galuppi, which the latter, the permanent
maestro di Cappella of the Church of San Marco, could perform in 1780.
The reconstruction was carried out by Marco Gemmani, the current musical director of the prestigious
Cappella Marciana
, based on the practice of replacing the antiphons preceding the psalms with parts of instrumental works.
In the evening order, the five Laudate psalms for eight voices in two choirs are preceded and interspersed with movements from the Concertos for Four Galuppi, as well as
fragments of the Gregorian chant before the final Magnificat .
The reconstruction makes a deep impression on both the quality of the music and the meticulous and exciting performance under the direction of Marco Gemmani. The psalms,
concise and concentrated, are interpreted with magnificent expressiveness and impeccable observance of the ratio of text and intonation, which fully
reveals the compositional skill and the mastery of counterpoint of the two-choral "Buranello".
It is possible that with regard to voices, instead, one can notice a certain lack of completeness in the transmission of the instrumental component due to the choice of its performance
in real parts (two violins and viola), and only the basso continuo is performed more fully (viola da gamba, double bass, organ).
The recording is a live performance at St. Mark's Cathedral in December 2021.