· Gabrieli Consort & Players celebrate 40years of exceptional performances, ground-breaking programmes, and acclaimed recordings
· UK tour of A Venetian Coronation with performances in London, Manchester, and York
This Summer, Gabrieli Consort & Players will celebrate 40 years of exceptional performances, ground-breaking programmes, and acclaimed recordings, including a UK tour where they will revive their iconic programme, A Venetian Coronation under the direction of Paul McCreesh [pictured].
The tour will see concerts performed in London’s St John’s Smith Square on 13 May 2022, Manchester Cathedral on 12 July 2022, and York Minster on 13 July 2022 as part of the York Early Music Festival. The performances are generously supported by the Continuo Foundation.
A Venetian Coronation is a lavish musical re-creation of the Coronation Mass for the Venetian Doge Marino Grimani in 1595, with music by Andrea and Giovanni Gabrieli, evoking the grand pageantry of Venice at the height of the late Renaissance.
Gabrieli’s recording of A Venetian Coronation was one of the ensemble’s first great successes and remains one of its most iconic and popular programmes. It established the ensemble as a foremost interpreter of such music and, perhaps most importantly, as a pioneering ensemble whose innovative use of liturgy brought the repertoire to life. Following this album’s initial release in 1989, Gabrieli re-recorded this seminal programme for McCreesh’s own label, Winged Lion in 2012. Both recordings received a coveted Gramophone Award.
Paul McCreesh, Artistic Director of Gabrieli Consort & Players, said: ‘A Venetian Coronation deservedly remains as one of our most popular programmes. Doge Grimani’s love of ceremony and state pageantry fuelled an extraordinary artistic legacy and gave rise to the great musical riches of the period, especially the works of Giovanni Gabrieli. With organs, cornetts, sackbuts, trumpets, drums and an all-male vocal consort, this flamboyant programme has captivated audiences in cathedrals and concert halls throughout the world, and even in San Marco itself.’