Opera News
John Dowland: In Darkness ‘Semper Dowland Semper Dolens’ (Always Dowland, always sad); such was the motto of the Elizabethan lutenist, poet, diplomat — and possibly spy — John Dowland. And, certainly...
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Aldeburgh
We’re off to Aldeburgh for a week in July, where we will work with composer Orlando Gough to re-invent his marvellous The World Encompassed. In particular, we want to add a spoken narrative, drawn from...
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Dartington
Kate Conway, Henry Drummond, Felicity Cormack, Stefania Pozzi & Guillermo Martinez We had a wonderful time at Dartington International Summer School this year. In addition to the normal course,...
View ArticleRCM Composition students
We’re demonstrating the viol and its myriad potentials to composition students at the Royal College of Music on Wednesday 24th September 1400 – 1630. We’ll be playing Barry Guy’s ‘Buzz’, written in...
View ArticleThe Year’s Midnight
We’re got two performances of The Year’s Midnight in the coming week: on Thursday at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, and then on Monday at Shoreditch Church as part of the Spitalfields...
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Kings Place and ‘Slow’ by Nico Muhly
It will be the world premier of Nico Muhly’s new work ‘Slow’ at Kings Place, London next Thursday, 5th February. This concert will also feature music from 16th century England that employs similar...
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Simon Callow to narrate The World Encompassed
Simon Callow is to narrate The World Encompassed with Fretwork at this year’s Dartington International Summer School on 2nd August. Following our collaboration with Simon for ‘The Year’s Midnight’ at...
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Fretwork plays Bach
Harmonia Mundi USA have just released a 4-CD compilation album of all our J.S.Bach arrangements: The Art of Fugue, Alio Modo and The Goldberg Variations. It looks very good, and I think it’s at a very...
View ArticleCD Review
There’s a good review of our 3-CD Bach re-issue here, starting at about 80 minutes. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06pv3gx
View ArticlePaul Driver in The Times
The Spitalfields Winter Festival opened at Shoreditch Church with a programme by the combined Fretwork viol consort and Red Byrd vocal group that unexpectedly overlapped in theme with an otherwise...
View ArticleA review of the Kings Place concert in Opera Today
Taverner and Tavener, Fretwork, London ‘Apt for voices or viols’: eager to maximise sales among the domestic market in Elizabethan England, publishers emphasised that the music contained in collections...
View ArticleThe Independent on Sunday
This three-CD set features Richard Boothby’s Fretwork consort playing his intriguing transcriptions of Bach keyboard works for the instrumentation of a slightly earlier era. Bach probably never had...
View ArticleThe Peerson Project
Next month we will embark on the extraordinary Peerson Project, performing and recording the ‘Grave Chamber Musique’ by Martin Peerson. I Fagiolini will provide the five voices and we will be the five...
View ArticleSherborne concert on Sunday
We’re doing a concert in Sherborne’s St Mary Magdalen church on Sunday 17th January at 4pm. We’ll be playing some of the four-part Fantazias by John Jenkins and combining them with some of Bach’s Art...
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Balliol College Art of Fugue
Last night we played Bach’s Art of Fugue in the Great Hall at Balliol College, Oxford. There were lots of young people there making a really attentive and generous audience. It was an intense...
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Kings Place Baroque Unwrapped next Friday
You didn’t know that the late David Bowie played the viol? This was him in a former life, perhaps, as Jean Baptiste Antoine Forqueray. We’re going to play his three remaining pieces for three bass...
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Martin Peerson
Here we are hearing in Leeds for our concert there last Saturday with I Fagiolini. We’ve nearly finished recording the complete ‘Grave Chamber Musique’ of Martin Peerson, an extravagantly gifted and...
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Fretwork is 30!
We’re celebrating 30 years with a concert of old music and new at London’s fabulous Kings Place on Friday 24th June. Come and hear music from 1520 right through to the 21st century with Sue Bickley,...
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