New Album: I Fagiolini rediscovers Colossal Baroque with Benevoli's Missa Benevola
14 September 2024
I Fagiolini and friends The City Musick, conducted by Robert Hollingworth, rediscover Colossal Baroque with Benevoli’s Missa Benevola, I Fagiolini’s new album released on CORO Records on 4 October. The album features three world premiere recordings and is the second instalment of the group’s album series exploring Benevoli’s masses. On the day of the release, I Fagiolini will perform Benevoli’s Missa Benevola, Carissimi’s Jephte and Monteverdi Motets for solo voice, duets and ensemble at St Martin-in-the-Fields. With a first performing edition by Robert Hollingworth of Missa Benevola, audiences will have a chance to hear this multi-choir Colossal Baroque from the great churches of 17th century Rome. I Fagiolini showcases the expansive polyphony and magnificent vocal and instrumental colours of four choirs in this new recording.
The album not only features the four-choir Missa Benevola, but also Carissimi’s Jephte, one of the 17th century’s most renowned works, packed with visceral emotion, virtuosic solos and its famously heart-wrenching final chorus. The album reflects the differing musical scales and sonorities of the time and is an explosion of aural textures and colours. Alongside these works, the album includes two further world premiere recordings of Carissimi’s Paratum, cor meum and Super flumina Babylonis.
I Fagiolini is set to release a final Benevoli album exploring the Colossal Baroque (rediscovered and edited by Robert Hollingworth) as well as a one-to-a-part recording of Monteverdi ‘Vespers of 1610’ in partnership with CORO - both to celebrate the group's 40th anniversary in 2026.
Robert Hollingworth, Director of I Fagiolini, says:
Benevoli’s Missa Benevola is a Marian mass composed in the 1640s for 4 choirs - perhaps for Michelangelo’s recently-completed St Peter’s Basilica or, more likely, Santa Maria Maggiore. Considering that in Benevoli’s day, the choirs would have been expected to sight-read the music, these must have been quite adrenaline-fuelled performances. We are thrilled to be performing this awe-inspiring work with augmented forces to maximise the sonic spectacle.
On the day of the release, Friday 4 October, I Fagiolini will perform at St Martin-in-the-Fields featuring Benevoli’s Missa Benevola, Carissimi’s Jephte and Monteverdi’s motets for solo voice, duets and ensemble – augmented by the Choral Scholars of St Martin-in-the-Fields and The Lyons Mouth - conducted by Robert Hollingworth. More details can be found here.
For more information about this project, Robert Hollingworth or I Fagiolini, please contact us. To listen to ‘Missa Benevola’, please click here. For more information and to watch I Fagiolini & Robert in action, please visit their pages here (I Fagiolini) and here (Robert), and explore their website. You can also follow them on Facebook and Instagram.