Rating: 5/5
Review:
An excellent disc
This is another excellent disc from Fretwork - now firmly established as one of the world's finest viol ensembles. Here they present a programme of music by Jewish-Italian musicians at the Tudor and Stewart courts. It is very fine viol music (I thought the five tracks by Thomas Lupo were exceptionally good) from the period of about 1550 to 1650. If you have any interest in music of this period or in viols in general, you'll love it.
Interspersed with this is the three-part piece by Orlando Gough which gives the disc its name. It's a bit like a klezmer-tinged Shostakovich string quartet. I rather like it, but I find it intrudes when I'm listening to the rest of the disc and I tend to programme my CD player to listen to it separately.
Fretwork, as one would expect, are simply brilliant. Their unflashy virtuosity and love for the music brings out all its wonderful qualities and their overall sound (excellently recorded by Harmonia Mundi) is rich and lovely. The whole disc is a truly rewarding and hugely enjoyable musical experience, and I recommend it very warmly indeed.
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