Venetian Vespers - CD

ENGLISH

<br><br>A superb collection of music gathering together some of the greatest composers and music from 17th Venice – that crucible of musical innovation, and home to the Gabrieli brothers, Monteverdi and Cavalli.<br /> <br /> These composers exploited and developed the musical freedom that had resulted after the replacement of the Gregorian chant harmonic system with the new idea of major and minor keys forming the basis of all harmonic development. The result was an outpouring of music that was highly expressive and emotional, and where for the first time equal emphasis was given to words and music. Monteverdi and Cavalli were also men of the theatre, and much of their church music is imbued with operatic drama.<br /> <br /> This set recreates the musical world of the city-state in the 1660s, with a fascinating reconstruction of an Easter Mass by Lassus with liturgical works by contemporary composers allowing us to hear the service as it may have been performed at the time. Vespers by Monteverdi, Gabrieli, Cavalli and several of their lesser-known colleagues and the music for San Rocco – a collection of instrumental and vocal music by Giovanni Gabrieli based on an eyewitness account complete this vivid tour of 17th century Venetian musical life.<br /> <br /> Other information:<br /> - ‘A good part of the effectiveness of McCreesh's Vespers is to do with its sense of drama, achieved through a variety of spatial effects that allow the full range of musical styles to speak clearly and effectively, from solo movements and duets to the magisterial sonority of traditional Venetian polyphony. Some praise and admiration for the sensitivity of the result must also go to the engineers’. Gramophone April 1993 (Venetian Vespers)<br /> - ‘The words 'Venice' and 'splendour' were simply made to go together and are certainly brought together in the latest recording by the Gabrieli Consort and Players entitled "Music for San Rocco". Gramophone January 1997<br /> - Booklet notes