I Fagiolini and Brecon Baroque, Lakeside, Nottingham, 14 December 2023. 4****: William Ruff.

Nottingham

I Fagiolini and Brecon Baroque

Lakeside, Nottingham

14 December 2023

4****

Review: William Ruff

“I Fagiolini celebrate both the spiritual and the earthy sides of Christmas.”

Anyone looking for the spirit of Christmas but who may be allergic to the usual servings of pantomime and carols should have been at Lakeside on Thursday night. The early music group I Fagiolini (Italian for ‘The Beans’) plus four string players from Brecon Baroque offered a musical menu which might at first sight have looked a tad serious and obscure, containing not just Bach, Monteverdi and Handel but also rarities like Cristoforo Caresana and Juan Frances de Iribarren. However, we all know that appearances can be deceptive and you wouldn’t guess from that line-up that by the end of the concert the audience would be laughing, cheering and whistling, all in a spirit of festive fun.

I Fagiolini’s Director Richard Hollingwood introduced the programme with infectious enthusiasm, his words a cascade of information about composers, performers, social customs, musical technicalities and adverts for the group’s recordings - even managing to turn a squeaky stage door to his comic advantage. The speed and gusto of his introductions set the tone of the evening, extracting the repertoire from the gloom of the cultural museum, giving it the immediacy of lived experience. If there were some occasional imperfections, they only increased the sense of spontaneity.

First came a Bach cantata for Advent: Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland (Now come, saviour of the gentiles), sung with just one voice per part to achieve total transparency of texture. What was striking wasn’t just the luminosity of the singing but also the care taken over the words: each phrase being given weight and meaning and supported by sensitive instrumental accompaniment. This same concern for expressive word-painting was also evident in Monteverdi’s psalm setting Beatus Vir as well as his madrigal Rimanti in Pace, both of which finely balanced the demands of words and music.

Despite this fine singing and playing the reason most people in the audience will remember this concert is the performance of Caresana’s Christmas drama La Tarantella (the tarantula), a sort of good versus evil baroque pantomime, featuring the baby Jesus, the Devil (with rather fetching red horns), angels (complete with halos and fluttery hands) and shepherds (with toy lambs, straw-filled pockets etc). It was all performed with an earthy relish which blew the dust off a work which first saw the light of day 350 years ago. Musically it’s not in the same league as Bach or Monteverdi but its festive high spirits and dramatic energy more than justified its performance.

And energy certainly characterised the final item on the programme: Xacara de Navidad, popular music from baroque Spain put to the service of the church at Christmas. Complete with castanets, guitars and tambourines, it was another reminder that Christmas has always been as much about banishing winter gloom as it has been a celebration of a religious mystery.

I Fagiolini (Director: Richard Hollingworth); Brecon Baroque (Director: Rachel Byrt)