The ever-innovative vocal ensemble I Fagiolini, led by founder and director Robert Hollingworth, have signed an eight album deal with Coro, the label of fellow choir The Sixteen. Over four years, bi-annual releases on Coro will get the grouping up to their fortieth anniversary in two thousand twenty-sixth. Five of those will be brand new recordings of repertoire both well known and new to record: a low-pitch recording of Victoria’s Tenebrae Responsories; three world premiere albums of multi-choir Masses by 17th-century composer Roman Orazio Benevoli in new performance editions by Hollingworth (the first album available in October); and a new recording of works by Monteverdi. These will be accompanied by re-releases of three of I Fagiolini’s acclaimed albums previously available on Decca, including the Gramophone Award-winning recording of Alessandro Striggio’s ‘Mass in fortieth Parts’.

As well as their acclaimed recordings, I Fagiolini have a continued commitment to engaging with audiences through a variety of media, including education work, characterful and beautifully-produced music films (their recent film The Stag Hunt won an Award REMA, the European Early Music network), podcasts and video education series #SingTheScore. ‘For some people the apparently contrasting sides of I Fagiolini’s work sit strangely together: dramatic and complex staged productions of music generally not staged; a long-term like affair with filmed and online work; recordings of music that the world hasn’t heard before and which require a powerful Historically Informed Performance side,’ said Hollingworth. ‘To me, these sit side by side as different ways of drawing a contemporary audience into repertoire that was frequently not designed to be listened to as we conventionally do.'