Fretwork

“In the final analysis, though in many ways infuriating, this is a brilliant and inspiring Dowland recital that cannot easily be ignored.” International Record Review

“We are, perhaps, in a wood-panelled Elizabethan hall, where in the early 17th century the family of a large house gather for their private prayer. Voices and viols mix in harmony, ranging from the familiar simplicity of Thomas Campion's "Never weather-beaten sail" to the elaborate verse anthem by Orlando Gibbons's "See, see the word is incarnate"...Another triumph” The Observer, 29th January 2012

“The beautifully blended voices of Stile Antico give this music with all the intensity that its emotional content merits. But then every work here fairly burns itself on the heart.” Sunday Times, 12th February 2012

“the performances are wonderfully fresh, revelling in the harmonic false relations and affectingly attentive to the import of the words.” The Telegraph, 18th February 2012 *****

“a varied treasure trove of seldom heard but extremely affecting music, nicely sung and spliced together with some darkly-glittering string In Nomines played by Fretwork...[They] easily persuade us that there is such a thing as beautiful simplicity.” BBC Music Magazine, April 2012 ****

“Stile Antico's sleek tuning and supple attention to words, and the studio recording, intimate but not claustrophobic, do bring a carefully plotted span (over 120 years) of sacred styles into our listening rooms with rare success.” Gramophone Magazine, May 2012

“another winner from the 12-voice ensemble Stile Antico... The two pieces by Thomas Tomkins, O praise the Lord and When David heard, epitomise the expressive richness of the style. But the simplicity of Campion’s Never weather-beaten sail is also gorgeous, and there’s an unexpected rocking figure, John Browne’s much earlier Jesu, mercy, how may this be?, that becomes a real earworm. The contributions of the viol consort Fretwork are equally fine” Irish Times, 20th April 2012 *****

“The group's singing is, as ever, breathtakingly beautiful” Classical Music, 2nd June 2012 ****

“When [Boothby] simply transfers lines from harpsichord unaltered, it's particularly effective, clarifying the counterpoint...No one can be unaffected after experiencing these new perspectives.” BBC Music Magazine, December 2011 ****

“An unusually stately opening Aria begins a fascinating viol consort arrangement of this oft-recorded work...This reviewer's initial skepticism soon vanished. Cogent, moving and and superbly recorded, it is perhaps a 'meditation on' rather than an 'arrangement of' the Goldbergs.” Classical Music, 22nd October 2011 ****

“Boothy's transcriptions are an unusual yet fascinating advocacy for a consort of viols that Bach would have considered archaic...as the spirit of the music dictates, Fretwork produces playing of astonishing imagination...With such a feast on offer, harpsichords never crossed my heretical mind.” Gramophone Magazine, January 2012

“The sheer technical mastery that Purcell distilled in his “fantazias” is astonishing. But these fluid, animated and emotionally acute performances from Fretwork show that his secure scholarship in the art of composition by no means curbed his caprice.” The Telegraph, 10th June 2009 ****

“Melancholy jostles with merriment, abruptness with eloquence; harmonies and logic go haywire..” The Times, 27th June 2009

“Nowadays, Fretwork takes a brisker view of the music though not perhaps a crisper one where matters of articulation are concerned. The playing in its new recording, with partly different personnel from the earlier one (Virgin), strikes my ears as being more fluent and expressively spontaneous.” BBC Music Magazine, August 2009 ****

“Fretwork have grown in confidence and flair… In this new recording they bring a stronger sense of the linear progression of the music, helped by slightly quicker tempi. They are less introspective, more engaging: they have mellowed. Purcell's remarkable Fantazias - out of sync with their time, never widely circulated or acknowledged in his day, yet works of true genius - are definitely worth revisiting.” Gramophone Magazine, September 2009

“An excellent survey, particularly valuable for its inclusion of startling and controversial early pieces such as Nekrolog (1960) and I Sumfoonia (1963) which prompted the Estonian Stalinist authorities to accuse Pärt of 'a lack of principles'.” BBC Music Magazine, April 2009 *****

“Always the unusual from the viol consort Fretwork. Not content with assembling a programme featuring covertly Jewish composers at the Tudor and Stuart courts, they thread through the tracks 24 klezmer-influenced minutes by the contemporary composer Orlando Gough. They’re pleasant, but for music with real meat you need the six selections by Thomas Lupo – sophisticated consort pieces teased out by Fretwork’s agile fingers.” The Times, 27th June 2008 ****

“compelling and convincing, it's to the credit of Fretwork that they chose to bring this previously lost bit of 16th-century music history into the light. Fretwork is particularly adept at this sort of thing, leaving us towonder and eagerly await their next project.” Classics Today 10/10

“Birds on Fire… is by Orlando Gough (b1953), a British composer… The music is hauntingly coloured by reference to klezmer tunes, while the second movement grows over a hypnotic ostinato. A memorable disc.” BBC Music Magazine, Proms 2008 *****

“Orlando Gough, best known for his theatre music, composed Birds on Fire in 1997. This is demanding, wonderfully offbeat music inspired by Ashkenazi Klezmers… which Fretwork brings off with a panache that astonishes and delights.” Gramophone Magazine, September 2008

“The title of this recording is a quotation from Aaron Appelfeld's 1939 novel Badenheim. The subtitle, 'Jewish Music for Viols', more accurately describes the contents: Fretwork have also recorded consort music by some of the Jewish composers at the Tudor court – the Bassanos and Lupos – along with two contemporaries in Holland, Philip van Wilder and Leonara Duarte, illustrating the extent to which they set aside the declamatory music of their forefathers in favour of the imitative polyphonic style prevailing in Northern Europe. Even the Venetian 'Ebreo' Salamone Rossi borrowed from the Latin motet for his 1622 Songs of Solomon, stilo antico settings with Hebrew texts sung here by Jeremy Avis.
If you're seeking the exotic, listen to tracks 1, 13 and 24. Orlando Gough, best known for his theatre music, composed Birds on Fire in 1997.
This is demanding, wonderfully offbeat music inspired by Ashkenazi Klezmers (more cabaret than camera), which Fretwork brings off with a panache that astonishes and delights. Importantly, it demonstrates the extent to which the viol consort has been circumscribed by its historic – largely amateur – repertoire and suggests that it is capable of far more. Each of the three Gough pieces begins with eerie sounds and is characterised by a kaleidoscope of syncopated ostinati, droll pizzicato asides and sinewy, modal themes conveyed in parallel octaves. You'll swear you can hear an organ, accordion, clarinet and a saxophone, but you don't. Fascinating, liberating music!” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010