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Donald Macleod explores the groundbreaking music the Gabrielis wrote for St Mark’s Basilica.

Andrea and Giovanni Gabrieli share a name that dominated Venetian music during the late 16th and early 17th century. Both uncle and nephew were organists and composers, and their music was linked inextricably with the exceptional city in which they lived and worked. From the organ loft of St Mark’s Basilica to the resplendent palazzos of merchants and noblemen, they provided the soundtrack to Venice’s golden age, with its numerous feast days and celebrations. But together, they would also pioneer an ambitious way of writing choral music - playing with texture and architecture – that would eventually echo beyond the Venetian waterways and profoundly affect the music of the future.

Today, we hear about the music that both Gabrielis wrote for the glorious ducal chapel of St Mark’s, and the amazing sonic innovations they came up with for that space and beyond. They had an important job to do - to write fresh, impressive music for a constant stream of state and church occasions - and they rose to that challenge. Theirs was the most complex music Venetians had heard yet - and it offered listeners their first experience of surround sound.

Andrea Gabrieli: Ricercar del settimo tuono
Hesperion XXI
Jordi Savall, director

Giovanni Gabrieli: Deus qui beatum Marcum
Gabrieli Consort
Paul McCreesh, director

Andrea Gabrieli: Sancta et immaculata; Laetare Jerusalem
Ensemble Officium
Wilfried Rombach, conductor

Andrea Gabrieli: Maria Magdalenae et altera Maria; Maria stabat ad monumentum
I Cantori di San Marco
Marco Gemmani, conductor

Andrea Gabrieli: Kyrie a 5; Christe a 8; Kyrie a 12; Gloria a 16
Gabrieli Consort
Paul McCreesh, conductor

Giovanni Gabrieli: Exaudi me domine a 16
Les Cris de Paris
Geoffroy Jourdain, conductor

Giovanni Gabrieli: Hic est filius Dei (arr. Timothy Higgins) a 18
National Brass Ensemble (USA)
Gail Williams, conductor

Giovanni Gabrieli: Hodie Christus natus est
Dunedin Consort
John Butt, director

Produced by Amelia Parker for Â鶹ԼÅÄ Audio Wales and West