Benevoli Mass for four choirs c 1650 with Robert Hollingworth

Expect a wonderful day with one of our favourite Tutors to get you in the spirit of Christmas! Robert has not told us which of Benevoli’s four masses we will be singing – he is still editing them! This is an opportunity to discover a really important figure – a lost link if you like – in the world of multi-choir music in the mid-seventeenth century: ORAZIO BENEVOLI.  We will get to know a newly edited mass for four choirs and this time (unlike so much Venetian music) the choirs are manageable by all voices so plenty of male voices please

We will also be singing Sweelinck’s Hodie Christus Natus Est to get us in the Christmas spirit and there will be mince pies!

Pitch =A440 suitable for strings, recorders, cornetts,  sackbuts and dulcians doubling the choral parts, and continuo including theorbo and bass instruments.

Robert founded I Fagiolini in 1986 and has spent much of his life thinking around how to present music of a different time and context to contemporary audiences.  He has presented all the group’s signature projects but also directed the English Concert, Academy of Ancient Music, BBC Concert Orchestra and some of the world’s finest chamber choirs including Accentus, NDR Chor, BBC Singers, RIAS Kammerchor, Capella Cracoviensis, VOCES8 and the Danish National Vocal Ensemble. He succeeds Mark Deller as Artistic Director for the Stour Music festival from 2020, and is Reader in Music at the University of York where he directs ‘The 24’ and runs an MA in Solo-Voice Ensemble Singing.  During lockdown he created and presented ‘Sing The Score’ on Youtube and the podcast ‘Choral Chihuahua’ with Eamonn Dougan and Harry Christophers.  He likes Monteverdi and Monty Python. 

Booking is now open..