I Fagiolini's 30th anniversary CD release 'Amuse-Bouche'
1 April 2016
Award-winning vocal group I Fagiolini celebrates its 30th anniversary with a new release for Decca Classics, Amuse-Bouche. Gramophone Magazine has already declared Amuse-Bouche Editor’s Choice for April “Sensuality doesn’t so much ooze as burst in ecstatic, convulsive spasms from I Fagiolini’s latest recording... absolutely, unmissably superb”, The Times' 4* review concluding "LeĢgions d’honneur all round!".
Offering a rich concoction of 20th Century choral delicacies this recording highlights the group’s love of French music and includes three world premiere recordings bursting with Gallic flavour.
“I Fagiolini have a particular sensibility for French music as heard in the caressing expressiveness… It was an evening of beguiling smooth sounds, intelligence and irreverence” Sydney Morning Herald
Chief among the three premieres is an 18-minute humorous homage to French cuisine by Jean Françaix. His Ode à la Gastronomie is an affectionate parody of sage advice from the great 19th century guide to French food and dining, La Physiologie du gout (1825), by Brillat-Savarin. Composed in 1950 but never since recorded, subjects covered range from the causes of indigestion to the erotic properties of the black truffle. Its musical style recalls Poulenc and is infused with the high octane intellectual aroma of 1950s Parisian café life. According to the composer’s son, Jacques, this particularly rich parody involving onomatopoeic word-play (kitchen noises) and plenty of gastronomic puns, requires a ‘fondu exceptionnel’, which he says I Fagiolini delivers 'par excellence'. Conductor Robert Hollingworth says: “it’s a joy to sing, and a meal in itself to learn.”
Alongside Françaix’s amuse-oreille is Jean-Yves Daniel-Lesur’s 12-voice masterpiece, Les Cantique Des Cantiques. Composed within two years of the Françaix, it portrays the erotically charged Biblical Song of Songs as a dialogue between Christ and the Church. In a ravishing and symphonic kaleidoscope of colours, Daniel-Lesur’s constantly changing combination of voices transforms the Old Testament verses into a profound Christian meditation.
These two large-scale works are separated by a collection of palette-cleaning sorbets between the main courses. The second world premiere is a gorgeous rendering of Milhaud Deux Poèmes. Francis Poulenc struggled for nearly 20 years to set poems by his friend, the surrealist, Paul Éluard, employing dramatic harmonic shifts to reflect emotions that veer violently between extremes to find sublime moments of exquisite tenderness. I Fagiolini sang Sept Chansons and Un soir de Neige on its debut tour of Australia in 2015. Classic Melbourne described the performances as “exquisitely sung and a joy to discover: I hope I Fagiolini record them.” with Broadway World concluding that the Sept Chansons were “sung with impeccable diction and a sense of mystery that was quite engaging to the point of being hypnotic … Warm, sensual and moving”. The disc also recognises the 150th anniversary of the birth of Eric Satie with the pianist Anna Markland playing three of Satie’s six gentle Gnossiennes.
Winner of the BBC’s Young Musician of the Year in 1982 at the age of 17, Anna Markland joined I Fagiolini four years later as a soprano. Anna takes centre stage as pianist in the final world premiere on the album, performing one of her favourite pieces in a specially commissioned vocalised version by former member of I Fagiolini, Roderick Williams. Roderick has set texts by Baudelaire and Rimbaud and placed them within the reflective and moving middle movement of Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G.
For the group’s Director, Robert Hollingworth (celebrating his 50th birthday this year), this recording is a long held ambition. Of all languages, Robert finds French the most beautiful to sing in and says there is a world of wonders in the 20th Century French choral repertoire. “I adore it. It feels as much a part of me as any Monteverdi madrigal. The sensuality of the language, the shifting sands of harmony; it feels very ‘chaleureux’ and something I Fagiolini has long sung and adored.”
The group will be touring performances of Amuse-Bouche to festivals during 2016. To check for upcoming concerts or to learn more about I Fagiolini please visit its website or follow the group on Twitter.
To order your copy of Amuse-Bouche please click here. If you would like to book I Fagiolini or have any queries please contact Libby Percival.