‘In Chains of Gold’ is a record of year in Gramophone Magazine
https://www.gramophone.co.uk/feature/critics-choice-2017 Fretwork and the Magdalena Consort’s fresh take on Gibbons’s consort anthems asks all sorts of awkward questions – such as what types of...
View ArticleChoir & Organ praise ‘In Chains of Gold’
‘Glorious Gibbons, both rare and well-loved, reaches an apogee of expression in this anthology featuring genuine consort/chamber/chapel forces. Revealed as early Protestant sacred music of the highest...
View Article5 Stars for ‘In Chains of Gold’ from BBC Music Mag.
When composer Thomas Morley urged performers to draw listeners ‘in chains of gold’, he might well have been reviewing this recording. Under the direction of Peter Harvey, the synergy of the Magdalena...
View ArticlePlanet Hugill praises ‘In Chains of Gold’
Orlando Gibbons complete consort anthems; Magdalena Consort, Fretwork, His Majesties Sagbutts and Cornetts; Signum Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Feb 02 2018 Star rating: 4.5 Gibbons’ verse anthems...
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Jenkins 4-part consort music released on Friday
Our latest recording will be released on Signum Classics on Friday. John Jenkins’ wonderful consort music in 4 parts – all of it: 17th Fantasias and two Pavans. Listen and order your copy here:...
View ArticleRecord Review, BBC Radio 3, today at 1050
Record Review is going to review both ‘In Chains of Gold’ and John Jenkins four-part Fantasies today at 1050. Listen out for this!
View ArticleFretwork’s Refurbished Spotify Page
We’ve just refurbished our artist’s page on Spotify. Here, you can listen to all our latest releases and back catalogue, and find information about concerts and tours. It looks rather smart too!
View Article5 star review in Classical Source
John Jenkins (1592-1678) is better known to viol-players and aficionados of repertoire for the instrument than to the general listener, but on the evidence of this Signum release he ought to be more...
View ArticleThe Guardian reviews Jenkins
The viol consort Fretwork, founded in 1986 and still flourishing, focuses on an English Jacobean composer, John Jenkins (1592-1678), in Complete Four-Part Consort Music (Signum). Whereas his near...
View Article5 stars for Jenkins from Planet Hugill
John Jenkins complete four-part consort music; Fretwork; Signum Classics Reviewed by Robert Hugill. 19 Mar 2018 Star rating: 5.0 Mellifluous, engaging with a lovely rhythmic vitality, the complete...
View ArticleGramophone review Jenkins
It may seem unfortunate for a two-CD set to total only 83 minutes, but then this is John Jenkins’s ‘complete four-part consort music’, so that’s how it has to be. Thankfully it sells for the price of a...
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Orlando Gibbons in Canterbury Cathedral
It was wonderful to play Orlando Gibbons’s music in the place where he is buried; and then to see the beautiful memorial to him set up after he died so suddenly in 1625. Here is the poignant autopsy:...
View ArticleThe Times reviews our Ryedale Festival performance
The Times reviewed the ‘triple concert’ at Castle Howard, part of the Ryedale Festival. Here’s what they had to say about our concert: “I started in the Chapel where, matching the recusant spirit of...
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The Observer hails the new Fretwork recording
The British countertenor Iestyn Davies has always extended the expected boundaries of his voice type, singing contemporary works written for him by Nico Muhly and Thomas Adès and now Michael Nyman. The...
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If: Michael Nyman, Henry Purcell
If: Michael Nyman, Henry Purcell Released on 22 March 2019 When Michael Nyman started reinventing the English baroque back in the 1980s, one critic described the result as “pump-action Purcell.”...
View Article“…strange and wonderful…” The Gramophone review ‘If’
Last year the American countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo gave us a recital pairing music by Philip Glass and Handel (Decca). Now the British countertenor Iestyn Davies takes his turn straddling the...
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In Nomine II
In Nomine II Released on 1 November 2019 Over thirty years ago, Fretwork made its first recording – well, technically speaking it was the second album to be recorded, but the first to be released –...
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‘Matchless’– The Guardian’s review of ‘In Nomine II’
‘Fretwork’s In Nomine II (Signum Classics), [is] a rewarding potpourri of instrumental consort music from the 16th and 17th centuries by Robert Parsons, John Bull, Christopher Tye, Henry Purcell and...
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