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Track(s) taken from CDA66908

Canzon duodecimi toni a 10, C179

composer
1597; No 10 of Sacrae Symphoniae

His Majestys Sagbutts & Cornetts
Recording details: March 1997
St Jude-on-the-Hill, Hampstead Garden Suburb, London, United Kingdom
Produced by Mark Brown
Engineered by Antony Howell & Julian Millard
Release date: September 1997
Total duration: 2 minutes 52 seconds
 

Reviews

‘This superb disc … is the very essence of La Serenissima. Masterly performances, alive with authentic detail’ (BBC Music Magazine)

‘Excellent. The playing is fluent and exhilarating. An excellent recording. The notes are exemplary’ (Classic CD)

‘Magnificent. The range of color, breadth and depth of sonority and the majestic nobility of the composer's conception are all revealed in a manner even the most expert of modern brass players could not possibly emulate. A superlative disc and a real credit to everyone involved’ (Fanfare, USA)

«L'ensemble anglais est aujourd'hui au sommet de son art» (Répertoire, France)
A compact, lively work in the festive 12th mode and one of only two in the collection – the other being the Sonata pian’ e forte—to contrast a high with a low instrumental choir. Much of the music for each choir, too, is contrasted, as at the opening where figural writing in close imitation for the cornetts is answered by sonorous block harmony for the sackbut choir. But there is much agreement between the choirs too, as ideas are thrown wittily back and forth.

The harmony is consistently bright, based almost entirely on major chords, and Gabrieli’s feeling for contrasts of key seems remarkably modern; the ‘white-note’ harmony of the mode is punctuated by four cadences in the ‘dominant’, G major, and a delightful sprinkling of more distant major chords: B flat, D, A and E major.

from notes by Timothy Roberts © 1997

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