The Best Hand in England

Orlando Gibbons is the bridge between Tudor and Stuart English music. He first joined the Chapel Royal in the year James I came to the throne and died just two months after Charles I’s accession, by which time he’d risen to become organist at Westminster Abbey. In his relatively short life he wrote prolifically for the voice (anthems and madrigals), keyboard and, of course, string consorts. He died 400 years ago this year.

Just over 40 pieces of instrumental consort music by Gibbons survive, mostly with the title Fantasia or Fantasy. But despite so many pieces labelled ‘fantasias’ in this programme, there’s amazing variety among them. Gibbons’ music embodies several decades of stylistic approach – at times echoing harmonies which could have come from Byrd, but at others clearly foreshadowing the final great flowering of the viol consort in the works of Purcell and Matthew Locke. This is some of the greatest consort music ever written, so come along and indulge in it!

Described by Gramophone as having released “unquestionably the most beautiful recording of [Dowland’s] Lachrimae”, Chelys have gained a reputation for their faithful yet fresh interpretations of the consort repertoire. They take their name from an ancient Greek word which referred to a bowed lyre.

The members of the consort are among the UK’s leading exponents of the viol, particularly as a consort instrument, and their consort viols are strung entirely in gut (not strings overwound with metal), which lends them a particularly distinctive sound.

“The haunting sound of gut strings has rarely been captured with such beguiling fidelity, nor the unique tonal proclivities of a viol consort so exquisitely voiced.” The Strad

Performers:
Ibrahim Aziz, Jenny Bullock, Kate Conway, Alison Kinder, Timothy Lin, Sam Stadlen viols