October 6, 2019 at 11:15

Fretwork perform:

  • Lawes: Consort Set in A minor
  • Debussy: Préludes, Book 1, no 8 – La fille aux cheveux de lin
  • Purcell: Fantasia in four parts in C minor, Z 738
  • Nyman: Balancing the Books
  • Isaac: J’ay pris amours
  • Isaac: La mi la sol
  • Isaac: O decus ecclesiae
  • Grieg: Lyric Pieces, Book 6, op 57 no 6 (“Heimweh”)
  • Pärt: Da pacem Domine
  • Handel: Passacaille

Book Tickets by Telephone

Prices

  • Adults – £12.00
  • Children 11-17 – £6.00
  • Children 5-10 – Free (Please note: we do not admit children under five years old)

Call +44 7518 479062 to reserve tickets in advance

(Please note: Tickets reserved by telephone will be held at the door on the day until 11:00 only.)

More Venue & Ticketing Information

Click here for information on the Holywell Music Room, purchasing tickets from resellers and where to get your complimentary cup of coffee.

Introducing the performers…

Asako Morikawa
Joanna Levine
Sam Stadlen
Emily Ashton
Richard Boothby

Few other ensembles can match the range of Fretwork’s repertory, spanning as it does the first printed music of 1501 in Venice, to music commissioned by the group this year. Their recordings of arrangements of J. S. Bach have won particular praise, but they have recently issued a disc containing music by Grieg, Debussy, Shostakovitch, Warlock & Britten. This extraordinary breadth of music has taken them all over the world in the 25 years since their debut, and their recordings of the classic English viol repertory – Purcell, Gibbons, Lawes & Byrd – have become the benchmark by which others are judged. Their 2009 recording of the Purcell Fantazias won the Gramophone Award for Baroque Chamber Music.

The consistently high standards they have achieved have brought music old and new to audiences hitherto unfamiliar with the inspiring sound-world of the viol.

Fretwork is the finest viol consort on the planet.“

The London Evening Standard

I love this group; I love their timbre, I love the way the individual styles of the viol players tussle against and inform each other, I love the tension of their approach and the sound they create.“

The Independent

A fascinating, beautifully played programme … Fretwork addressed all this music with an easy-going virtuosity. In variation sets, the principal lines moved smoothly and easily from one instrument to the next, and in chordal music, the players produced a well-tuned, fully balanced sound with a delightfully tangy character.“

The New York Times

Fretwork are without doubt one of the most expressive and ambitious of this country’s viol consorts.“

The Independent

One came to appreciate every minutely observed rise and fall of tension, every detail of immaculately groomed phrasing, as this first-rate ensemble demonstrated its art in Purcell Fantasias and In Nomines and four Lawes Consort Setts, ending with the wonderful one for six viols in C minor … and it was the majestic cumulative layering of polyphonic lines in the final work that offered Lawes and Fretwork at their most masterly. It is hard to imagine consort playing of greater refinement or subtlety than this.“

The Times

Fifteen years on, Fretwork remain the world’s leading viol consort, and if this disc for new label Harmonia Mundi is anything to go by, we’re in for many years of electrifying playing. Outstanding.“

The Independent

Fretwork’s playing is all one could wish for.“

Classic FM, Editor’s choice

No group play the viol repertoire with more flair and feeling than Fretwork.“

The Times

The dynamic range of Fretwork is stunning, its tone vibrantly rich and its careful paragraphing and sensitive response to the lyrics bringing these songs to life.“

BBC Music Magazine

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