Experimentation – breaking the mould – is at the heart of any artform and when it comes to sacred choral music the names Giovanni Gabrieli and his German protégé Heinrich Schutz loom large.

Gabrieli (1557-1612) had to think big to fill the cavernous Basilica San Marco with sound, so he split his choir and instrumentalists and placed them in different parts of the cathedral. Schutz, 30 years his junior and who spent three years studying with him, learnt the boundless possibilities of double choirs and expanding the number of vocal lines, and works by these two composers were at the heart of Sydney Chamber Choir’s opening concert for the season.

Artistic director Sam Allchurch didn’t have the manpower either Gabrieli or Schutz had on hand – just 30 choristers and four musicians from Matthew Manchester’s excellent early music ensemble Camerata Antica with Thomas Wilson on chamber organ – but such was the quality of the performance in the Sydney Con’s Verbrugghen Hall that it wasn’t too much of a stretch to imagine that there were gondolas parked outside.

Sydney Chamber Choir. Photo supplied.

The ground broken by the two early Baroque masters...