Presto Recording of the Week
3rd December 2021

Fretwork, Helen Charlston

Byrd: Out of the orient crystal skies
Holborne: Pavan
Holborne: As it Fell on Holie Eve
Byrd: From Virgin's Womb - Rejoice, Rejoice
Holborne: The cradle
Holborne: Lullabie
Byrd: Lullaby, my sweet little baby
Gibbons, O: 7 Fantasias 'For Ye Great Dooble Bass': No. 1 a 4
Byrd: An Earthly Tree - Cast off All Doubtful Care
Peerson: Attendite
Peerson: Upon my Lap, my Sovereign Sits
Weelkes: To Shorten Winter's Sadnesse
Gibbons, O: 7 Fantasias 'For Ye Great Dooble Bass': No. 2 a 4
anon.: Sweet was the song the Virgin sang
Holborne: The New-Yeares Gift
Holborne: Heigh ho holiday
Byrd: O God that guides the cheerful sun

Viol consort Fretwork and mezzo soprano Helen Charlston explore the more reflective and sombre Christmas celebrations of Elizabethan England, in a collection of works by William Byrd, Anthony Holborne, Orlando Gibbons and Martin Peerson.

With celebrations confined strictly to the 12 days from Christmas Eve to Epiphany, the preceding Advent was regarded as a time of religious introspection, with music composed to mark both fasting and feasting. Byrd's consort songs for voice and 5 viols encompass this range, from the joyous Out of the Orient Crystal Skies - ending with an exuberant 'Falantidingdido', a word whose meaning is lost to history - to his Lullaby, a 'song of sadnes and pietie 'that became one of Byrd's most enduringly famous songs.

In 2021, Fretwork celebrates its 35th anniversary. In the past 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 over 40 new works.

Acclaimed for her musical interpretation, presence and “warmly distinctive tone” (The Telegraph), Helen Charlston is quickly cementing herself as a key performer in the next generation of British singers. Helen won first prize in the 2018 Handel Singing Competition and was a finalist in the Hurn Court Opera Competition, and the Grange Festival International Singing Competition.

Recorded in St Magdalen Church, Sherborne, Gloucestershire, UK from 15th – 17th May 2019 and 7th –8th October 2020