Performer’s notes

Robert Hollingworth

How did you come to record this little-known music?

In the public awareness, I think there’s a hole in music history when it comes to the mid-17th century – whether in England, France, Germany or Italy. Hugh Keyte (who has worked with Andrew Parrott and others) put me on to Benevoli and I got very excited. There are eight four-choir masses: my job was to choose the best of them and to get editing.

What about Tu es Petrus made it such a perfect fit for I Fagiolini?

I hope we’ve fitted around it by moulding how we sing to its idiosyncrasies. A specific example: ‘alto’ at this time seems generally to have implied ‘high tenor’ rather than countertenor, and this means getting four guys to sing higher than usual in their range but still with Italian élan and that crucial ear for balance and style. But more generally, I feel that the best performances of polyphony require more character and energy at the level of the individual line than has become fashionable. The aural sheen of polyphony is a siren-like sound that draws in listeners and reviewers alike, but the music is in the part-writing, the play between the parts – and the text!

What made this work such a rewarding discovery?

Various things, including the gorgeous geography of having four choirs – and the doubling-up of those four choirs to eight. But really, it’s the sheer quality and invention of the piece. Just take the second half of the Credo, which is constantly refreshing the texture – and then pulls a blinder in the final Amen with a section of such joyous, mental virtuosity that I can’t quite believe the score.