Gabrieli have had an incredibly busy winter with performances and
recordings throughout November, December and January. We began November with a performance of
Handel’s Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno for Martin Randall Travel
at the beautiful historic Palazzo
Colonna in Rome, before returning immediately to the UK for two performances of our Purcell and Britten programme Three Odes for St Cecilia at the Bath MozartFest and The Sage, Gateshead. The Sage performance
formed the first evening in a mini-residency in the North-East, hosted by The Sage, being followed by a performance of A Venetian Coronation 1595 at Durham Cathedral. This programme has been a Gabrieli
favourite for over a quarter of a
century, and it has been fantastic to perform it so widely – and even to re-record it – during our thirtieth anniversary year.
December was taken up with an entirely new a cappella choral programme for Gabrieli, performed at Spitalfields Festival, for Music on the Quantocks in Taunton and recorded for Winged Lion
at Douai Abbey. This was a typically eclectic Gabrieli programme, programming Christmas repertoire from the 15th and 16th centuries alongside Howells, Leighton and Dove. The programme culminated in a
performance of Britten’s
A Boy Was Born for which we were delighted to be joined by the boys of
the Copenhagen Royal Chapel Choir,
the choir for which Britten’s
A Ceremony of Carols was written.
Finally, 2013 began with a bang, with
one of our most exciting projects to
date – a recording of Britten’s War Requiem with over 300 musicians,
taking place during the first 10 days of January. For this mammoth event, soloists Susan Gritton, John Mark
Ainsley and Christopher Maltman
led an ensemble that included Gabrieli musicians, the Wroclaw Philharmonic Choir and members of the Gabrieli
Young Singers’ Scheme, whose participation in the recording was the rewarding culmination of a series of gruelling training sessions throughout
the autumn! We are enormously
grateful to our friends and colleagues
at the National Forum of Music,
Wroclaw for their support of this recording, which will be the third in the Wratislavia Cantans Oratorio Series,
due for release in September 2013.
Gabrieli is an ambitious and audacious ensemble that strives to offer inspirational and thought-provoking performances and recordings, to stand out from the crowd. We are not defined by one area of repertoire, nor do we not confine ourselves to being one type of ensemble. Our work is determined by our passion and commitment to great music, not a dedication to one century or one nationality. From Morales to Mozart, Bach to Britten, our performances are defined by the desire to employ historical performance ideals and knowledge to create music anew, to deliver exhilarating and dramatic performances of great choral and instrumental repertoire from across the centuries.
“…When Paul McCreesh and his Gabrieli Consort & Players take on a project, they go the whole hog...”
The Times, August 2011
During 2012, celebrating our 30th anniversary, Gabrieli performed as an a cappella consort of 12 voices and as a choir and orchestra of over 300 musicians. Our eclectic repertoire was performed throughout the UK and Europe and ranged from well-known Gabrieli programmes such as the Morales Requiem, A Venetian Coronation 1595 and Handel Solomon to less familiar ground, such as Britten’s A Boy Was Born and the Stravinsky Mass. During the course of the year we released no fewer than three recordings on Paul McCreesh’s Winged Lion label: A Song of Farewell, A New Venetian Coronation 1595 and Mendelssohn’s Elijah. Visit our recordings page to buy your copy now.
2013 began in spectacular fashion, with a collaboration between Gabrieli, Wroclaw Philharmonic Choir and the Gabrieli Young Singers’ Scheme to record Britten’s War Requiem. The Gabrieli Young Singers’ Scheme, launched in 2010, is a pioneering and aspirational education initiative that belongs at the very heart of our activities, offering young singers regular opportunities to sing as part of Gabrieli’s professional performances and recordings. Visit the About Us section of our website to learn more about the unparalleled musical opportunities that we are determined to offer to these young singers in future seasons.
Gabrieli’s ambitious programme of performances, recordings and education would not be possible without the support of our many loyal donors. We do not receive a penny of public funding. Concert fees only cover the direct artistic costs of each engagement and rarely, if ever, contribute towards our running costs and continued survival. Large-scale recording and education projects do not attract fees and rely 100% on fundraising. We urgently need to attract more donors.
How can you help? Please come to our concerts, buy our CDs, subscribe to our newsletters, tell your friends about us and invite them to join you in donating to us, whether as a one-off gift or by joining our friendship scheme and becoming part of a family of supporters that ensures the ongoing success of this demanding, eclectic, exciting and wonderful ensemble!
