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Complete Four-Part Consort Music
John Jenkins

Fretwork

Complete Four-Part Consort Music

Price: € 25.95
Format: CD
Label: Signum Classics
UPC: 0635212052822
Catnr: SIGCD 528
Release date: 06 April 2018
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Label
Signum Classics
UPC
0635212052822
Catalogue number
SIGCD 528
Release date
06 April 2018

"Highly stylized music, highly stylized played by a top ensemble. Rustic and intimate."

Stretto, 17-5-2018
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About the album

John Jenkins (1592-1678) is perhaps the most popular English composer of the great golden era of music for multiple viols, ranging from William Cornyshe in 1520 through to Henry Purcell in 1680. The reason why is not hard to fathom: a rare melodic gift is married to an exceptionally deep understanding of harmony and modulation, and effortless counterpoint gives each part an equal voice in the musical conversation.

Fretwork perform Jenkins’ complete consort works for four-part viol ensemble, in a new recording that showcases this composer’s rich and diverse compositions.

Artist(s)

Fretwork (gamba)

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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Highly stylized music, highly stylized played by a top ensemble. Rustic and intimate.
Stretto, 17-5-2018

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