Q&A with I Fagiolini director Robert Hollingworth
Robert Hollingworth tells you all you need to know about why Monteverdi - whose music features in I Fagiolini's Live from London concert - is so good
Last updated 6th Aug 2020
The second concert in the Live from London series features the early music vocal group I Fagiolini. We spoke to director Robert Hollingworth about the programme and his love of Monteverdi's music.
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Tell us why you're singing this programme of Monteverdi's music that you've selected for Live from London this Saturday?
We had a choice of doing anything, so long as it worked for the acoustic. I think we all need soul food at the moment, both singers and the audience, and I just kept coming back to Monteverdi. I first came across him when I was 10, singing the Monteverdi Vespers. When you think of the research that has been done over the past 44 years or so, I think we all see him as an even greater composer than we did then. His music is viscerally moving. It doesn't matter if you like early music or not, Monteverdi is for everyone. It's just so powerful.
When we listen to Monteverdi we hear ... well, a sort of sauciness in the music. Why is that do you think?
One reason is that he has a real acoustic understanding and he knows how to space harmony. When he puts down a C minor chord, it really rings because of the way he's spaced it out. He has a phenomenal awareness of dissonance. The thing about dissonance - as any jazzer will tell you - is that major and minor can be combined, so long as it's laid out in the right order. That sauciness is absolutely something that he does. In the past I've compared it to beautifully filmed black and white mud wrestling. He knows exactly how to lay it out, but it's still quite filthy sounding at times.
How did lockdown impact on you, your thinking, or your work?
There's been a lot of talk about having the time to think about things, but I haven't had this time at all. I've been putting out programmes everywhere called Sing the Score, which has left me with very little time. I've loved it. Quite a few of the programmes have been about Monteverdi. I now understand more about why I like him so much.
You've given us a follow-up question: why do you love him so much?
He does straight melody so well and good tunes. You think of the happy tune from Orfeo. Who needs Bernstein when you've got tunes like that? You can even shout 'mambo' in Orfeo if that helps. It's also fantastically acoustically laid out. He really understood harmony and acoustics. When he wants chords to bite, he really knows how to do it. He understood the physics of it even in 1590. He understands the drama of music too. There's a belief in this country that early music is 'safe music' and academically interesting. It is, of course, but it's so dramatically powerful. I keep going back to this, as I can't get enough of it. Then there's also the invention in his music: there aren't two pieces alike in his set of madrigals - turning the page you'd think it was a different composer. Monteverdi is constantly inventing.
Here's your chance to pitch Monteverdi's music to someone who hasn't heard his music before.
His pieces will take you to heaven and beyond. The sounds in them. The sauce. The filth. I think that should be our next CD project - 'Filth' about all those dirty bits in music. I don't mean the text, I mean the music that makes you go, "Ooooph".