VENICE-AUSTRIA. The Magic of Polyphonic Music

Advance Notice: Venezia vs. Austria, September 25, 2026, 8:00 p.m.

An extraordinary musical event is coming to Mondsee on September 25: Maestro Marco Gemmani and the Cantores di San Marco—an ensemble that draws directly from the tradition of San Marco in Venice, the very place where Venetian polyphonic choral music reached its zenith—will be performing. In what has now become a well-established collaboration with the Kantorei St. Michael Mondsee, the result is a concert that brings historical connections to life through sound.

The program centers on works by Austrian composers who were trained by Giovanni Gabrieli and Andrea Gabrieli in Venice and who carried the splendor of polyphonic choral music into the Alpine region. The source scores come from historical archives—including those in Venice—and were specially prepared and arranged for this concert by Marco Gemmani.

As a result, music that has not been heard in Mondsee for more than 300 years will resound—a living piece of music history that, in a sense, amounts to a rediscovery.

The use of historical instruments such as trombones and cornets creates an extraordinary spatial sound that makes impressive use of the venue’s architectural possibilities and immerses the audience in a soundscape from a bygone era that is, at the same time, surprisingly vivid.