Rediscovering a recording classic

E. Power Biggs, Gregg Smith Singers, The Edward Tarr Brass, Texas Boys Choir, The Gabrielli Consort La Fenice, Vittorio Negri, Conductor

This remarkable recording was released way back in 1968 and was recorded in the Basilica of San Marco in Venice. It was the pet project of E. Power Biggs, who along with producer John McClure, persuaded the powers at Columbia Masterworks to bestow their blessings on the production, despite massive cost overruns and obdurate Venetian bureaucrats who threw up one hurdle after another (Mr McClure referred to them as “the macaroni curtain”), which Messrs Biggs and McClure patiently dealt with as they arose. That was no easy feat in Italy in 1968, but they managed to get the job done and the album was released to great acclaim from musicians, music historians, and critics.

Truly amazing is, the recording has been in the catalogue (now Sony Music’s) for over four decades and never has been dropped. While some of the performance practices of the time may sound a little dated to modern scholars, most listeners will not find them egregiously anachronistic, and the wonderful antiphonal back and forth of choirs and brass, seem to anticipate by decades the “surround sound” recordings of today. They sound, along with their high quality audio, truly marvelous when played on a good modern audio system. 

The recording also helped bring to the world’s attention the sad condition of the San Marco Basilica back then, propelling a successful movement to restore it.

You can find The Glory of Gabrielli on the Qobuz and Spotify streaming services, which sound fine indeed, as well a posting of it on YouTube, which also sounds fine.

Perhaps most important, this recording serves to show not only the glory of Gabrielli, but the glorious legacy of Catholic liturgy and music in general and sadly highlights how far it has descended in our time, to today’s god-awful mediocrities, like “Gather us in,” “I am the Bread of Life” and other atrocities, that far too manyof today’s Catholics consider typical church music.

It isn’t and it’s well worth your time to listen to the Glory of Gabrielli.