I Fagiolini | A Tale of Four Cities - 3: London

A programme of some of the best-loved English a capella repertoire from 500 years. From Henry VII’s appointee John Skelton’s imaginings of Christ speaking on the cross to madrigals from Elizabeth’s reign. Further music to celebrate the appointment of Thomas Tomkins to the Chapel Royal in 1622 and The Cries of London set into a consort song. Solo songs and trios by Purcell lead us on to Britten’s settings of mediaeval English lyrics in ‘Sacred & Profane’, written just before he died. Flanders and Swann may be provided.

The final programme will be a little fuller and there will be some talking interspersed with the music by Robert Hollingworth.

Grounded in the classics of the Renaissance and twentieth-century vocal repertoire, I Fagiolini is renowned for its innovative staged productions. The group has staged Handel with masks, Purcell with puppets, and in 2004 premièred The Full Monteverdi, a dramatised account of the composer’s Fourth Book of Madrigals. I Fagiolini has performed worldwide from BBC Proms and the Lincoln Center Festival to the Far East and Africa.