On the hottest day of the year, we packed into Sedbergh’s ancient (and relatively cool) church to listen to a performance of ancient and modern vocal music by I Fagiolini, an a capella group of eight singers and their director, Robert Hollingworth. This is the group’s 40th year and pieces were drawn from across their repertoire.
The first half of the concert was made up of music from the 16th and early 17th centuries including pieces by John Wilbye, Thomas Weelkes and Monteverdi. After the interval there was a shift in gear as we were treated to a variety of 20th century pieces.
The singing was absolutely spot on. Despite the wide range of styles, every the entire evening was note perfect. We both loved the entire programme - including the encore, sung in Zulu - and were so transfixed that we stopped noticing the heat after a while.
A gorgeous evening filled with beautiful music in a lovely setting. And at the end of the concert we emerged to a much cooler temperature.
