Tune in to White Light Sunday Morning with Host Eric Friesen For the Venetian Easter Mass at 10:00 AM (CST).

Tess Knighton of Gramophone writes:

This recording from the Gabrieli Consort and Players follows the now familiar format in their recordings of a ‘liturgical’ reconstruction – not an actual celebration of Mass, of course, but a selection of musical items presented in a sequence such as might have pertained to a specific feast in a particular location.

This time we are whisked back to St Mark’s, Venice, for an Easter Mass as it might have been celebrated around 1600. Familiar territory for the Gabrieli Consort and Players, of course, although for this recording the centrepiece is not a work by a Venetian composer, but rather the Missa Congratulamini mihi by Orlande de Lassus, whose music was included in the international repertory copied – and presumably performed – at          St Mark’s. The accompanying notes do not make it clear whether this particular Mass was among the works copied there, or housed in the basilica’s library, but in any case it seems a good and justifiable idea to reflect in such a reconstruction the broader range of that institution’s music-making.

As usual, the singing and playing are of a high order, and fans of these large-scale reconstruction projects – which only DG seem able to afford – will want this latest offering on their shelves.

Works on This Recording