We are justly suspicious these days of describing period performance in terms of picture analogies. 'Restoring' or 'dusting off' implies that academic revelation is the sole incentive, absolving the musician from taking any further responsibility to stir the human soul. But in the case of this remastered recording from 1978 we can safely say that surgical spirit has been particularly influential for our understanding of Gabrieli's resplendent canvases. This disc confirmed the irony that small vocal forces and refined instrumental textures of cornetts and sackbuts could furnish the Venetian festive motet with greater sobriety and grandiloquence than cathedral choirs and brass ensembles were ever able to.
By re-releasing this selection from Gabrieli's posthumous collection of 1615, L'Oiseau-Lyre have single-handedly doubled the number of works currently available from Symphoniae Sacrae II. Andrew Parrott has re-recorded two of them for EMI Reflexe (8/91), leaving six new entries from this assortment. However, out of the 30-odd pieces from this mature and opulent publication, not even half have found their way on to CD. Parrott's choice is shrewd in the way he provides the fullest range possible of Gabrieli's essential qualities, introducing in works like Suscipe clementissime the remarkable textural variety found in the best of the larger-scale pieces. Overall the singing has weathered pretty well over the years but it lacks the sheen of Parrott's current Taverner Consort where homogeneity and sustained theatricality can be taken for granted. Denis Arnold's impression of the whole, 15 years ago, was that it lacked conviction but I would put it down more to inexperience in dealing with sustained growth than simply interpretative caution or glibness. There is certainly an epic quality in the two Magnificat settings which still communicates itself powerfully. The remastered sound revives the rich textures of the cori spezzati but there is no question that Buccinate in neomenia tuba would have gained from modern technology. As I have said elsewhere, we must remain optimistic that Decca keep reissuing their old Florilegium catalogue. Its importance is becoming clearer by the minute.'