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Guy Cutting tenor, Malachy Frame baritone, Edmund Saddington bass-baritone
Total time: 71:19
Chamber: Fretwork
Asako Morikawa
Emily Ashton
Joanna Levine
Sam Standlen
Richard Boothby
withHelen Charlston mezzo soprano
from 15th - 17th May 2019 and 7th - 8th October 2020
Notes
Viol consort Fretwork and mezzo soprano Helen Charlston explore the more reflective and sombre Christmas celebrations of Elizabethan England, in a collection of works by William Byrd, Anthony Holborne, Orlando Gibbons and Martin Peerson.
With celebrations confined strictly to the 12 days from Christmas Eve to Epiphany, the preceding Advent was regarded as a time of religious introspection, with music composed to mark both fasting and feasting. Byrd’s consort songs for voice and 5 viols encompass this range, from the joyous Out of the Orient Crystal Skies – ending with an exuberant ‘Falantidingdido’, a word whose meaning is lost to history – to his Lullaby, a ‘song of sadnes and pietie’ that became one of Byrd’s most enduringly famous songs.
In 2021, Fretwork celebrates its 35th anniversary. In the past three and a half decades they have explored the core repertory of great English consort music, from Taverner to Purcell, and made classic recordings against which others are judged. In addition to this, Fretwork have become known as pioneers of contemporary music for viols, having commissioned over 40 new works.
Acclaimed for her musical interpretation, presence and “warmly distinctive tone” (The Telegraph), Helen Charlston is quickly cementing herself as a key performer in the next generation of British singers. Helen won first prize in the 2018 Handel Singing Competition and was a finalist in the Hurn Court Opera Competition, and the Grange Festival International Singing Competition.
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Reviews
“… 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…”
Catherine Moore – American Record Guide – January/February 2022
“…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.”
Dr Matthias Lange – klassik.com – 14 December 2021
“… 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.” ****
Terry Blain – BBC Music magazine – Christmas 2021
“… If you are looking for a really good disc for the Christmas season, this is one you should investigate.”
Johan van Veen – MusicWeb-International.com – 10 December 2021
Christmas Album Round-up
“A lovely programme that places at its centre a series of William Byrd's consort songs and is a world away from rollicking carols. Much of the music is thoughtful, perhaps solemn but Byrd's consort music is always stunning especially when so delivered as here. There are works too by Martin Peerson and Thomas Weelks, whilst Fretwork contributes a selection of purely instrumental pieces, dances by Anthony Holborne with delightful titles and fantasias by Orlando Gibbons. The whole is finely conceived to make a satisfying programme.”
Robert Hugill – PlanetHugill.com – 10 December 2021
“… 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.” ****
Eric Jeal – The Guardian – 9 December 2021
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