BBC Music Magazine
February 2023
Choral & Song Choice
Presto Recordings of the Year
Finalist 2023
King's Singers, Fretwork
Byrd: Praise our Lord, all ye Gentiles
Byrd: If women could be fair - Ah, silly soul
Weelkes: Say dear, when will your frowning
Weelkes: Like two proud armies
Weelkes: Pavan [3] - Mr Weelkes his 3. Pavin'
Weelkes: Thule, the period of cosmography
Weelkes: What joy so true
Weelkes: In Nomine in 4 parts
Byrd: Ye sacred muses - an elegy for Thomas Tallis
Patrick Dunachie
MacMillan: Ye Sacred Muses
Weelkes: In Nomine a 5
Weelkes: Hark All Ye Lovely Saints
Weelkes: Death hath deprived me
Williams, Roderick: Death Be Not Proud
Weelkes: In Nomine a 5
Byrd: Who made thee Hob forsake the plough?
Byrd: The sweet and merry month of May
Byrd: Browning (The Leaves be Green)
Byrd: Alack, when I look back
Byrd: O Lord, make thy servant Elizabeth
400 years ago, in 1623, England lost two of it's greatest composers: William Byrd and Thomas Weelkes. In a program marking this double anniversary, The King's Singers and Fretwork turn their focus to the bold personalities of these two men, Will and Tom. Featuring well-known gems by the two composers, alongside works which had never been recorded before and which are rarely heard live, Tom and Will unlocks some of the humanity behind these two giants of Elizabethan music. Presented in The King's Singers' unique style, this program is filled with beauty, drama and storytelling. As part of this project, The King's Singers and Fretwork have commissioned two new works for their joint forces, by two of Britain's great living composers: Sir James MacMillan and Roderick Williams. These works only feature in the version performed by The King's Singers and Fretwork, but represent a commitment to keeping the spirit of Byrd and Weelkes alive in today's musical landscape.
"From Weelkes we have the immensely subtle Hark all ye lovely saints, set to springy, vertiginous changes of metre beautifully negotiated by the singers, and his In nomine a 4, performed in a delightfully skittish manner by Fretwork...this new release is one of the finest recordings of this repertoire and can be warmly recommended." - BBC Music Magazine, February 2023.
