I Fagiolini: Fire and Ice

An evening of Monteverdi performed by the celebrated British vocal ensemble directed by Robert Hollingworth.

Fire or ice? Spring or winter? April offers both as does Monteverdi, a composer who still towers over his time in his ability to move the listener – and to mould sound.

Fire & Ice offers the very finest of his a cappella miniatures: ‘O primavera’ seems to offer the hope of spring, ‘Rimanti in pace’ seems to combine the clarity of Palestrina with the passion of Puccini while ‘Lamento d’Arianna’ (with its famous ‘lasciatemi morire’) uses raw dissonance to scream its outrage. Breaking up these masterworks, accompanied solos and duets, from his rarely heard ‘Salve o regina’, the virtuosic ‘Parlo, misero’ and everyone’s favourite ‘Lament of the nymph’, a rhapsodic cry over a mesmerising repeating bass line.

As I Fagiolini looks towards its 40th anniversary, it returns to a life-long passion for the music of Monteverdi. Introduced by Robert Hollingworth (who also set up the podcast Choral Chihuahua and the Youtube series, Sing The Score), the group’s recordings, live work and films have been an inspiration to lovers of early music.