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In Chains of Gold: The English Pre-Restoration Verse Anthem Vol. 1, Orlando Gibbons Complete Consort Anthems
Orlando Gibbons

Fretwork

In Chains of Gold: The English Pre-Restoration Verse Anthem Vol. 1, Orlando Gibbons Complete Consort Anthems

Price: € 19.95
Format: CD
Label: Signum Classics
UPC: 0635212051122
Catnr: SIGCD 511
Release date: 03 November 2017
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Label
Signum Classics
UPC
0635212051122
Catalogue number
SIGCD 511
Release date
03 November 2017
Album
Artist(s)
Composer(s)
EN
NL

About the album

Leading performers of 17th-century music Fretwork, His Majestys Sagbutts and Cornetts and the Magdalena Consort (directed by Peter Harvey) combine forces under the artistic direction of William Hunt for this first complete recording of the consort anthems of Orlando Gibbons.

Gibbons’ music is one of the artistic glories of the first Stuart reign. Amongst his sacred compositions, verse anthems such as This is the record of John and Behold, thou hast made my days are long acknowledged masterpieces, amongst the greatest in all English sacred music, but best known to most in their setting for choir and organ. Here they are presented together with an array of other great anthems, some of them scarcely known, in their more intricate and colourful versions for consort accompaniment.

Following the instruction of such contemporary writers as Morley and Caccini, these radical new performances place communication of text at the forefront, seeking to rediscover the dramatic essence of the verse anthem that made it arguably the most effective musical creation of the English Reformation. With the incisive declamatory skill of several of the UK’s leading period performers, they reveal the extraordinary rhetorical and poetic power of this music, as it might have been heard in the Chapel Royal and the private domestic chapels of early 17th century England.

Een unieke samenwerking tussen toonaangevende oude muziekensembles

De vooraanstaande uitvoerenden van 17e-eeuwse muziek Fretwork, His Majestys Sagbutts and Cornetts en het Magdalena Consort (geleid door Peter Harvey) slaan onder de artistieke leiding van de gerespecteerde musicoloog William Hunt de handen ineen voor de eerste volledige opname van de consort anthems van Orlando Gibbons.

De muziek van Gibbons’ is een van de artistieke pareltjes uit het eerste bewind van het huis Stuart. Onder zijn geestelijke composities worden verse anthems als This is the record of John en Behold, thou hast made my days, waarin solisten en het koor elkaar afwisselen, al lang erkend als meesterwerken. Maar hun versies voor orgel en koor zijn het bekendst. Op dit album worden ze gezamenlijk met een reeks van andere geweldige anthems gepresenteerd, in de meer ingewikkelde en kleurrijke versies voor ensemblebegeleiding. Sommigen van hen zijn nauwelijks bekend.

Deze radicale nieuwe uitvoeringen, die de instructies van tijdgenoten als Morley en Caccini volgen, plaatsen het overbrengen van de tekst op de voorgrond, en proberen de dramatische essentie die het verse anthem tot de meest effectieve muzikale creatie van de Engelse Reformatie maakte te herontdekken. Met de scherpzinnige retorische bekwaamheid van verschillende vooraanstaande Britse artiesten op het gebied van de historische uitvoeringspraktijk onthullen de uitvoeringen de buitengewone retorische en poëtische kracht van deze muziek, zoals die geklonken zou kunnen hebben in de Chapel Royal en de privékapellen uit het vroege 17e-eeuwse Engeland.

Artist(s)

Fretwork

In 2021 Fretwork celebrated its 35th anniversary. In these last 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 nearly 50 new works. The list of composers is like the role call of the most prominent writers of our time: George Benjamin, Michael Nyman, Sir John Tavener, Gavin Bryars, Elvis Costello, Alexander Goehr, John Woolrich, Orlando Gough, Fabrice Fitch, Peter Sculthorpe, Sally Beamish, Tan Dun, Barry Guy, Andrew Keeling, Thea Musgrave, Simon Bainbridge, Poul Ruders, John Joubert, Duncan Druce & Nico Muhly. In 2010 they...
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In 2021 Fretwork celebrated its 35th anniversary. In these last 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 nearly 50 new works. The list of composers is like the role call of the most prominent writers of our time: George Benjamin, Michael Nyman, Sir John Tavener, Gavin Bryars, Elvis Costello, Alexander Goehr, John Woolrich, Orlando Gough, Fabrice Fitch, Peter Sculthorpe, Sally Beamish, Tan Dun, Barry Guy, Andrew Keeling, Thea Musgrave, Simon Bainbridge, Poul Ruders, John Joubert, Duncan Druce & Nico Muhly.
In 2010 they also curated a week-long concert series of concerts at Kings Place which culminated in the world premier of The World Encompassed by Orlando Gough, a 70-minute piece describing in musical terms Drake’s circumnavigation of the globe in 1577-80.
In 2011, The National Centre for Early Music, in collaboration with the BBC, hosted a competition for young composers to create a four-minute piece for Fretwork. They workshopped the shortlisted pieces at the NCEM in York in October, and then the winning entries were premiered in Kings Place in December 2011. In 2014 they concentrated on the music of John Dowland with a major tour of the UK with one of today’s greatest tenors: Ian Bostridge. They also spent a week in the Britten Studio in Aldeburgh re-working The World Encompassed to incorporate a spoken narrative drawn from contemporary accounts.
Slow: an In Nomine by Nico Muhly was premiered in 2015 at Kings Place in London, and they collaborated with celebrated actor Simon Callow in the revised version of The World Encompassed and recorded it for Signum Classics.
They celebrated their 30th anniversary with a star-studded concert at Kings Place in June 2016. They also recorded four new albums, including The World Encompassed, and later that year they made their longest tour of America, taking in the USA, Canada and Colombia.
In 2018 they performed and recorded a programme celebrating the music of Michael Nyman – who turned 75 in 2019 – with the exceptional counter-tenor, Iestyn Davies. In 2019 they toured North America with this programme.
That year they also began a series of concerts at Wigmore Hall, called Musick’s Monument, presenting the greatest English consort music from the Golden Age – six concerts ranging from Taverner to Purcell. The 2020 pandemic curtailed most groups plans and activities, and Fretwork saw its fair share of cancellations; but it was fortunate to receive support from Arts Council England’s Emergency fund, and then to be able to present a live-streamed concert with Iestyn Davies from the National Centre for Early Music in York, a programme of Dowland’s Lachrimae from Wigmore Hall and premier a new work by Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones in the Early Music Festival in Blackheath. They also pressed ahead with more recording once lockdown restrictions were eased.
They performed at Wigmore Hall twice in 2021, including a performance on Good Friday, the first from Wigmore on that date for many decades, of Johann Sebastiani’s St Matthew Passion. They have also been awarded a substantial grant from Arts Council England to continue and maintain the continuity of their work.
They premiered their new project, Albion, in Kings Place in November 2021. It is a reflection on English identity as seen through the musics of various ages and ethnicities. They invited ten composers – Orlando Gough, Yfat Soul Zisso, Sally Beamish, Gabriel Prokofiev, Sarah Dacey, Talvin Singh, Blasio Kavuma and others – to arrange iconic pieces of English music. This included works such as Overload by the Sugababes, Land of Hope and Glory, London Calling by The Clash, Sailing By by Ronald Binge and When All Is Said and Done by Napalm Death. These are then linked and amplified with live electronics, creating an impressionistic tableau that explores and questions English identity. While they used to fly all over the globe, they have now committed to reducing their carbon footprint by travelling in Europe only by train or electric cars - this year they have toured Germany, France & Spain, Austria & Slovenia in their two Teslas.


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William Hunt (conductor)

Composer(s)

Orlando Gibbons

Gibbons was an English composer, virginalist and organist of the Golden Century of English music. His career started in Cambride, after which he was named organist of the Chapel Royal. Later, he became of the Virginals of Jams I and in 1623 he was named organist of the Westminster Abbey.  Gibbons wrote a large number of madrigals and plenty of sacred music, yet he is mostly known for his instrumental music. He is seen as the succesor of William Byrd. Gibbons died of an acute stroke. His son, Christopher Gibbons, grew to fame too, as he composed Cupid and Death together with Mathew Locke, a masque on a libretto by James Shirley, which is now considered as one of the first English...
more
Gibbons was an English composer, virginalist and organist of the Golden Century of English music. His career started in Cambride, after which he was named organist of the Chapel Royal. Later, he became of the Virginals of Jams I and in 1623 he was named organist of the Westminster Abbey. Gibbons wrote a large number of madrigals and plenty of sacred music, yet he is mostly known for his instrumental music. He is seen as the succesor of William Byrd. Gibbons died of an acute stroke. His son, Christopher Gibbons, grew to fame too, as he composed Cupid and Death together with Mathew Locke, a masque on a libretto by James Shirley, which is now considered as one of the first English operas.
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