COMPOSERS: Gabrieli/Frescobaldi
LABELS: Sony Masterworks Heritage
WORKS: Canzonas; Toccatas
PERFORMER: E Power Biggs (organ); Chicago, Philadelphia, Cleveland & Boston Brass Ensembles
CATALOGUE NO: MHK 62353 ADD (1959/68)
This received a Grammy award in 1969. The playing is sonorous, brilliantly articulated, well projected and proud – all that you would expect from musicians described as ‘a who’s who of 20th-century brass players’. But more remarkable, only a generation ago, is the innocence of any historical perspective. Using an armoury that includes modern tubas and French horns, seismic tuttis are contrasted with fruity 19th-century lyricism, both of which would gladden the heart of Richard Strauss but probably not Gabrieli. Christopher Mowat
Gabrieli/Frescobaldi: Canzonas; Toccatas
This received a Grammy award in 1969. The playing is sonorous, brilliantly articulated, well projected and proud – all that you would expect from musicians described as ‘a who’s who of 20th-century brass players’. But more remarkable, only a generation ago, is the innocence of any historical perspective. Using an armoury that includes modern tubas and French horns, seismic tuttis are contrasted with fruity 19th-century lyricism, both of which would gladden the heart of Richard Strauss but probably not Gabrieli. Christopher Mowat
Our rating
3
