Gabrieli is a name associated above all with the great Venetian musical family of the late Renaissance, especially Andrea Gabrieli and his nephew Giovanni Gabrieli. In the Pristine catalogue the name appears in Renaissance and early Baroque repertory connected with the splendour of Venice.

Giovanni Gabrieli (c.1554/57-1612) is the best-known figure, famed for his sacred and instrumental works for the basilica of St Mark’s. His music helped define the Venetian polychoral style, with groups of voices and instruments answering one another across resonant space.

The Gabrieli style is ceremonial, spacious and sonorous, built on antiphonal contrast and glowing brass colour. It stands at the threshold between Renaissance vocal polyphony and the dramatic instrumental thinking of the Baroque.

Whether heard in church music or instrumental canzonas, Gabrieli’s work turns architecture into sound. It is music that seems to know the exact distance between marble, air and gold.