Vivid documentation and the close links between Venice’s music and her institutions have led over the years to memorable reconstructions “of events as they might have unfolded” in the late-sixteenth or first half of the seventeenth century. The lion’s share of La Serenissima Repubblica’s most opulent celebrations – be it a Doge’s Coronation (Virgin, 5/90) or a Vesper’s Service at St Mark’s (Archiv, 4/93) – has come from Paul McCreesh and his Gabrieli Consort and Players. Now Robert King gives us a no less satisfying disposition for vocal and instrumental period-pieces; such is our attraction to the ‘theatre’ of Venice, one wonders whether performances of Gabrieli in future, without bells, smells, fanfares and so on, will be de rigueur. “Lo Sposalizio” is built on the same principles and foundations as the McCreesh projects; this mouth-watering celebration of Venice is devised with considerable expertise in ritual, contextual aspects and the imaginative allocation of music to, in this particular instance, the processions and journey across the lagoon and the subsequent solemn Mass held in San Nicolo. King explains in the note, with his inimitable enthusiasm and clarity, how, from the eleventh century, mariners congregated annually to ask for St Nicholas’s protection. The festival became, over the centuries, an important social event in the calendar as the symbolic ‘fertility rite’: the marriage between Venice and her blessed Adriatic, prayerfully celebrated on Ascension Day. The central act was when the Doge would toss a gold ring into the sea from his resplendently ornate galley (rowed by 400 hapless slaves). He would them move amongst the flotilla, with glorious music wafting over the calm ripples of the lagoon, his progress punctuated by various stop-offs for blessings and further ceremonial.
The musical journey across to the Lido is principally a secular exercise and we are treated to some delectable madrigals by both Gabrielis. Whilst those weened on McCreesh may find the ensemble a touch undernourished in the first madrigal, Vieni, vieni Himeneo, it soon transpires that sweetness and balance are the essential ingredients for King; the result in the exquisite instrumental numbers is a sensitivity to matching timbre which is an unusual delight both in the Guami Canzona XXIV a 8 and the imploring counterpoint that acts as a foil to the fencing in Andrea Gabrieli’s Battaglia. Indeed, what shines through with great dignity is the sense of an unfolding procession with a seemingly effortless choreography, the musical highlight of which is Giovanni Gabrieli’s eight-part madrigal Lieto godea sedendo, set here with two falsettists and strings, portraying “the disturbance of spring” in all its poignant and fleeting glory. The intimate and affectionate duetting of James Bowman and Robin Blaze, so beautifully rendered here, is something of a landmark as the inimitable mentor shares the reins with the pick of the younger generation of countertenors. The depth of quality and the control within individual voices of the vocal consort is a match for anyone in the effervescent and magisterial 16-part Gabrieli piece Udite, chiari et generosi, though the acoustic of St Jude’s, Hampstead – and the pragmatic recording techniques required for such an undertaking – demand that tutti work is clearly defined and that a strong interpretative angle is projected. This is where the Gabrieli Mass movements for San Nicolo, which constitute the second disc, are far more successfully realized than in Cantiam de Dio: this is the only multi-voiced work where the performance appears prosaic compared with the poised elegance that informs the vocal and instrumental dialogue of the Kyrie and Sanctus a 12. This is a small gripe in an otherwise exceptional recorded event. Running through the veins of nearly all the pieces are the ingredients of commitment, immediacy and spontaneous musicianship which allow one to view this ravishing music on its own terms, rather than losing sight of it – as can happen too easily – with endless speculative reconstruction for its own sake. The documentation is outstanding. A very fine achievement all round.'