For me, this is also McCreesh's best album because it is not a reconstruction. I have heard several of these discs, and the reconstructions of Mass or vesper services might be interesting to listen to once, or maybe even twice if you have never been ot a genuine Catholic service of this sort. But frankly, liturgies, and liturgical chants are not entertainment, and generally are purely functional rather than entertaining. If you want just the real music on these discs, you have to program out 20-25% of the selections! More music and less turgid liturgical history for me, Paul!


Excellent!   April 14, 1999
 4 out of 4 found this review helpful

I'm not much of an early music buff, but being acquainted with one of the soloists on the disc, I decided to spring for it. Am I glad I did! This is one absolutely stunning album. The incomparable David Hurley himself makes this disc a must for your collection.


Uneven in effect but tremendous performances noentheless   January 23, 2003
 4 out of 5 found this review helpful

In contrast with the previous reviewer, I find this group to be at their absolute best when presenting a reconstructed service. When a selection of "pure music" such as this CD is presented, I find myself getting bored with the evenness of sound.

The acoustic of the Scuola di San Rocco is much drier than that of a church - wooden flooring and all - and I find that the very large scale pieces (such as the closing Magnificat) lose much of their magnificence performed in this acoustic. I don't mean to say that it is not magnificent, only that it could be so much more so. The smaller, chamber-style pieces on the other hand sound superb here.

All the performances are flawless and very sensitive, no matter what scale they are on. This is very much in the same league as the tremendous Venetian Coronaton CD by the same group, but because of the acoustic - or maybe the sound engineering itself - I am left feeling less viscerally involved by the close of the CD than in I should be - hence 4/5.


This is how you perform the music of Gabrieli!   November 5, 2003
 3 out of 3 found this review helpful

There is little I can add to what the other reviewers have said about this tremendous recording. The performances are very good, the tempi are well chosen and the instruments are the rights ones.

There are many excellent contributions from individuals - Robin Blaze is positively heroic in Buccinate in neomenia tuba. The three violins in Sonata XXI con tre violini play this music with great sensuality. The cornettists are all first rate and so are the sackbut players.

It all sounds very good and the music is wonderful.

Let's just hope that the video of this recording is issued on DVD soon! (Let DGG know you wan them to do this!)


Gabrieli, the original surround sound performer   July 3, 2005
 3 out of 4 found this review helpful

Being only marginally acquainted with the music of Gabrieli and his period, I have little to add to comments already made. I must confess that two discs worth of 16th century liturgical music runs a little long for me. I'll focus instead on the sound of the SACD version.

This was one of my first SACD purchases, and I chose it because I knew that Gabrieli wrote for multiple choirs situated in different sections of the church, and figured that, if the engineers did their jobs right, this could be a stunning demonstration disc.

It is.

Gabrieli's music is a natural of mutichannel reproduction. In Timothy Roberts' opening organ toccata, the sense of space in this recording is uncanny. "In ecclesiis" envelops the listener with front and back chorus and soloists whose voices soar with a fullness that we can usually only experience in a real basilica. The only thing missing is the upper reverberation that you get in a real church. If your rear speakers are elevated like mine are (I had to work within the limitations of my room--doors and such!), you may get some of that sense.

If you are at all interested in the music of Gabrieli, this is the recording to get. If you are set up for multichannel sound with an SACD player, be sure to get it in that format. To hear it with the separation and sonic detail of San Rocco, brings this very old music alive. The music was reportedly composed for the larger Saint Mark's Cathedral, but for recording purposes San Rocco was deemed preferable. The church itself is a beautiful instrument and is hard to capture faithfully in just two channels.