Fretwork

Simon Callow: Narrator
Fretwork: Viol Consort

Emily Ashton
Richard Boothby
David Hatcher
Reiko Ichise
Asako Morikawa
Richard Tunnicliffe

Sunday 2 August, 7.45pm Great Hall
£18.50 reserved / £14 unreserved / Under 16s £9.25 reserved / £7 unreserved

“Fretwork is the finest viol consort on the planet,” Stephen Pettitt, The London Evening Standard

A magical musical journey, tracing Francis Drake’s circumnavigation of the globe as The Golden Hinde sailed to Morocco, the South Americas, California, Java, the Cape of Good Hope and Sierra Leone, finally returning to Plymouth in 1580. This concert weaves together 16th century viol music with narration, as well as the music of the colourful and versatile Orlando Gough.

Few other ensembles can match the range of Fretwork’s repertory, spanning the first printed music in Venice in 1501 to music commissioned by the group this year. 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 and Byrd – have become the benchmark by which others are judged. Their 2009 recording of the Purcell Fantasias won the Gramophone Award for Baroque Chamber Music.

“Drake took four viol players with him when he left Plymouth in 1577 in The Pelican (later renamed the Golden Hinde); we even know their names: Simon Wood, Thomas Meckes, Richard Clarke & ‘George a Musician’. They played hymns for Drake to sing during his hour-long daily devotions; they also played music for some of the native peoples that they came across on their epic journey. And they, in turn, heard the music of these cultures; probably the first time, in many instances, that a western musician had encountered such music. Orlando Gough has imagined what this music might be, and thinks of it played on viols as the way these musicians might have told others about it upon returning: ‘What did it sound like?’ asks a curious friend. ‘Well, it went something like this,’ says Simon Wood and his band, and they try and reproduce, on their viols, the sounds they had heard on the other side of the world.” Fretwork

Orlando Gough Leaving Plymouth!
Robert Parsons The Song Called Trumpets
Parsons Preserve us Lord
Orlando Gough Mogador
John Taverner In Nomine
Orlando Gough Maio Santiago Fogo Maian rituals; the capture of Nuño de Silva; flying fish
Orlando Gough Fortune my Foe
Orlando Gough Port Desire Patagonian Indians
Robert White In Nomine
Orlando Gough Terra Incognita An island of geese (or what look like geese); glimpses of the Indians; an eclipse of the moon; storms
Orlando Gough The Humble Suit of a Sinner
Parsons De La Court
Parsons Preserve us Lord
Orlando Gough The Spanish Main
Orlando Gough Albion: Miwok Indians
Orlando Gough 180 degrees
Orlando Gough Ternate: Moors
Orlando Gough Pavin of Albarti
Picforth In Nomine
Orlando Gough Java
Orlando Gough Fortune my Foe
Psalm 100
Parsons The Song called Trumpets