Fretwork Viol Consort: Six Centuries, Five Viols

This is the 3rd concert of the Oxford Chamber Music Society's 2025-2026 season. Click here for details of the full season.
For over four decades, Fretwork has stood at the forefront of the viol consort revival, acclaimed worldwide for performances of extraordinary finesse, depth and expressive power. Renowned for redefining what a viol consort can be, Fretwork combines scholarship with fearless musical imagination, bringing both early masterpieces and new music vividly to life.Their programme Six Centuries, Five Viols is a striking celebration of the viol's uniquely enduring voice. Spanning six hundred years of music, the programme traces an unbroken lineage from the golden age of Renaissance polyphony, through the richly expressive works of the Baroque, to powerful contemporary compositions written especially for the ensemble. Each piece reflects a different moment in the viol's long history, revealing how its sound has continually inspired composers across radically changing musical worlds.Performed by five of the world's finest viol players, Six Centuries, Five Viols is both an exploration of musical time and a testament to the viol consort's timeless expressive range. By placing early music alongside living composers' responses to the instrument, Fretwork creates a programme that feels at once historically illuminating and urgently contemporary - an experience that is as intellectually engaging as it is sonically compelling.Elegant, searching and deeply communicative, Six Centuries, Five Viols offers audiences a rare opportunity to hear the viol consort not as a historical curiosity, but as a living, evolving ensemble with a voice that continues to resonate across centuries.Emilia Benjamin, Jonathan Rees, Jo Levine, Lucine Musaelian, Richard BoothbyProgrammeWilliam Lawes: Consort Sett in F major (c.1630)
Barry Guy: Buzz (1995)
William Byrd: In Nomine in 5 parts (c.1590)
Claude Debussy: La fille aux cheveux de lin (1910)
Fryderyk Chopin: Prelude in d minor (c.1820)
John Paul Jones: The Tudor Pull (2020)
Interval
Giovanni Legrenzi: Sonata sesta (1673)
John Jenkins: 2 Fantazies in 5 parts (c.1630)
Edward Grieg: Heimweh Op.57 No. 6 (1893)
Alfonso Ferrabosco: Hexachord Fantasy (c.1590)
Johann Sebastian Bach: Passacaglia BWV 582 (c.1710)Photos: (C) Fretwork