WHAT a concert.
Edification, education and entertainment all wrapped up in one bundle. The magnificent launch concert to the Greyfriars Kirk series on Monday night featured two groups, the exotically-named outfit, His Majestys Sagbutts and Cornetts and Concerto Palatino in a celebration of the music of Giovanni Gabrieli, who died on Sunday; which is to say 400 years ago on Sunday.
The Sagbutt (sounds rude but it isn't), is the sackbut, a precursor of the modern trombone. The cornett (not cornet) is a precursor of nothing. Some folk think it's like an oboe but it isn't: it's wood but no reeds; it uses a cup mouthpiece, like a brass instrument. It is an incredibly lyrical, song-like instrument. I got my hands on one, 35 years ago, and it produced a sound suggesting a word I couldn't reproduce in a family newspaper.
But with real players, in this 10-strong joint group, the sound of the ensemble was magnificent.
Of course, some of Gabrieli's Canzonas, at least, were produced for St Mark's in Venice, which is rather different from the Greyfriars space and acoustic.
None the less, these musicians, playing homophonically and antiphonally, a wide selection of Gabrieli's glorious Canzonas and Sonatas, used the space to their advantage. The sound was brilliant, and the performance throughout was a masterpiece of subtlety: warm, rounded sound and understatement.
The message was clear: just because you're brass, you don't have to blast.
HHHH
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