“… By adding vocal music to this Elizabethan Christmas program, Fretwork achieves a number of things. First, we hear the Nativity story through settings by Byrd, Thomas Weelkes, Martin Peerson … However, well instrumental music such as pastorals can conjure up the Christmas scene, we do like to hear these stories in words in order to fully benfit from their comfort, their nostalgia, their joy and hope. Second, the vocal music balances and contrasts with the varied instrumental timbres and styles in the program… Third, we get the opportunity to hear mezzo-soprano Helen Charlston … There is fine depth ad color in Charleston’s interpretation of the text…”

Interpretation: ****       Sound quality: ****      Repertoire value: ****      Booklet: ***

“…Collection and reflection are the defining factors of this beautiful plate. Fretwork and Helen Charlston are not interested in soulful contemplation without depth with this program, but rather a real impression of the Elizabethan Advent and Christmas season. A tip for everyone who is looking for an alternative repertoire for this period: it can be found here.”

“… tracks like Byrd’s ‘Out of the Orient Crystal Skies’ and Weelkes’s ‘To Shorten Winter’s Sadnesse’ show voice and instruments interweaving in seamless expressivity. The songs are interspersed with short instrumental pieces, including two genial fantasies ‘for ye great dooble bass’ by Gibbons. All are played with Fretwork’s typical attunement to the sensibilities of the Elizabethan period.” ****

“… If you are looking for a really good disc for the Christmas season, this is one you should investigate.”

“… The songs are beautifully delivered by the mezzo-soprano Helen Charlston, who sings with firm yet confiding tone and lends the same sense of potentially endless expansion to her lines as do the viol players. A handful more singers lend occasional choral support. The songs are interspersed with instrumental pieces: short dances by Anthony Holborne, with suitably Christmassy titles from The Cradle to Heigh Ho Holiday, and two of Orlando Gibbons’s Fantasias “for Ye Great Dooble Bass”, in which the lowest viol adds a new sonorous richness. As played by the five members of Fretwork, each piece unfolds with its own calm yet unstoppable momentum; harmonies crunch and grind but can always be relied on to resolve, steadily and with absolute inevitability. There’s a feeling of consolation here that you can hunker down with, however you’re feeling about the festive season this year.” ****