‘April is the cruellest month’ wrote TS Eliot ‘breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.’
Early April saw our sellout concert of Hildegard and the Billingsgate Trumpet (a fascinating deep dive into medieval music merged with rare 17th -century works for cornetto, sagbutt and dulcian). Fanfares on the Billigsgate trumpet played from the balcony of Alderton church by Adrian Woodward and Daniel Serafini opened this unique concert. And the Billingsgate trumpet has to be seen to be believed… this elegant narrow medieval instrument (the original found in the Thames in 1984) is over 5 feet long! And all this inspired by the splendid 13th-century wooden effigy of a medieval knight in the church at Alderton.
Fiori turn now to inspired renaissance music for Holy Week. Our Good Friday concert at Cranford St John includes beautiful 16th-century meditative choral music from England, Italy, Spain and the New World! Top of the bill of fare is the hauntingly beautiful Allegri Miserere with its soaring high soprano part. Other delights include works by William Byrd, Victoria, Gesualdo and Padilla. And we were so thrilled to see this concert listed in a recent issue of Country Life as one of their ‘unmissable events’ . What an honour!
Full details of this and all Fiori’s forthcoming summer concerts at ticketsource.co.uk/fiori
Wishing you all a very Happy Easter!
Recipe of the month Simnel cake