Andrea Gabrieli
Andrea Gabrieli wrote sacred vocal music and instrumental works for the resonant spaces of late Renaissance Venice: ceremonial motets, madrigals, and organ pieces that trade dense counterpoint for clear, antiphonal sonority.
His church music favours grouped voices and instruments answering across the space, with repeated phrases at shifting pitch and texture rather than continuous Franco-Flemish polyphony. The same ear for colour marks the smaller organ works: dances, canzonas and ricercars that move from bright figuration to reflective imitation. On these recordings he appears as a composer of sacred choral repertoire and of the Italian organ tradition that fed the concertato style of the next generation.
Compositions by Andrea Gabrieli appear on
Italian Organ Masters
Major master organist Sergio de Pieri offers an enjoyable and authoritative survey of Italian organ repertoire by lesser-known masters, from Renaissance dances and ricercari to Zipoli and Frescobaldi.
Soul
Douglas Lawrence OAM leads the Australian Chamber Choir through sacred music spanning Renaissance polyphony, early Baroque splendour and African-American spirituals.