I Fagiolini close the Fairest Isle Festival on the afternoon of 17 May with Monteverdi's 1610 Vespers, a performance that marks the ensemble's 40th anniversary year. Their approach strips the Vespers back to what the Arts Desk called "Off-the-charts brilliant, utterly enthralling" at their London performance: raw Italian polyphony with intimate miniatures, filigree ornamentation, and a roster of specialist Monteverdi singers including Nicholas Mulroy and Matthew Brook.
The 1610 Vespers is one of the most architecturally complete pieces of sacred music from before Bach, and I Fagiolini perform it with the English Cornett and Sackbut Ensemble, which gives the brass parts the period-instrument sound that modern brass sections cannot approximate. The Fairest Isle Festival has built its programme around the idea that early music belongs on an island with this much Norman and medieval history. This is the argument for that idea made at full scale.
Tickets from £10, booking via the festival. Afternoon performance on 17 May. More music events on the Isle of Wight across the festival weekend.
