Fretwork stands among the foremost viol consorts worldwide, its identity preserved through repeated membership shifts while it continues to distinguish itself by venturing into repertory rarely associated with the instruments. The ensemble’s programs have included Bach transcribed for viols as well as numerous newly commissioned contemporary scores.
Established in London during 1985, the group began with six players—Richard Boothby, Julia Hodgson, William Hunt, Wendy Gillespie, Richard Campbell, and Elizabeth Liddle. By 2022 the original roster had dwindled to a single survivor, Boothby, and the consort had contracted to five members, yet its sonic character and guiding principles remained unchanged. Early acclaim brought an invitation to London’s Wigmore Hall in 1986. Initial concerts and recordings concentrated on the central English Renaissance literature for viols. The ensemble’s debut release, the 1987 album In Nomine on the Amon Ra label, presented works by Byrd, Tallis, Purcell, and Lawes in that characteristically English form. In 1989 Fretwork moved to Virgin and thereafter recorded chiefly for Virgin and Harmonia Mundi. International attention followed promptly, resulting in tours of the Soviet Union prior to its dissolution, Japan, and the United States, together with frequent appearances at European summer festivals.
Beyond pure consort works, Fretwork has issued recordings of consort songs featuring early-music vocalists, among them a notable collection of William Byrd songs performed with Emma Kirkby. Beginning in the late 1990s the ensemble broadened its scope past Renaissance boundaries. A recurring focus has been Bach arranged for viol consort, encompassing both string compositions and keyboard pieces, including the open-score Art of Fugue, BWV 1080. Numerous contemporary composers have received commissions from the group, among them Tan Dun, Gavin Bryars, and Elvis Costello. Selections of Fretwork’s music appear in the Jim Jarmusch films Coffee and Cigarettes (2003) and Broken Flowers (2005). American tours have frequently featured the album Birds on Fire: Jewish Music for Viols, devoted to Italian Jewish Baroque composers. In the early 2020s the players were Boothby, Joanna Levine, Asako Morikawa, Sam Stadlen, and Emily Ashton. Arrangements prepared by the ensemble are issued through its own Fretwork Editions imprint. The group joined the Signum Classics roster in 2017; two years later it released the vocal album If with countertenor Iestyn Davis, presenting music by Michael Nyman and Henry Purcell. In 2020 Fretwork participated, alongside other ensembles, on In Chains of Gold: The English Pre-Restoration Verse Anthem, Vol. 2. During the pandemic year 2021 the consort issued three recordings—Byrd 1588, Lamento, and An Elizabethan Christmas, the last of these with mezzo-soprano Helen Charlston—before returning in 2022 with Matthew Locke: The Flat Consort.
