My Days: Songs and Fantasias by Orlando Gibbons

The festival opens with the first of our tributes to Orlando Gibbons, one of the most imaginative, creative and assured composers this country has ever produced (a second concert is presented by the Rose Consort of Viols and Ex Corde on Wednesday 9 July). Gibbons’ stellar career at the Jacobean court (explored in John Bryan’s lecture on Monday 7 July) was cut short by his sudden death 400 years ago in 1625. Fretwork present a selection of his wonderfully wrought Madrigals and Mottets sung by YEMF Artistic Adviser Helen Charlstib, together with some of his most compelling pieces for viols. These range from cheeky dialogue for two treble viols to exhilarating grandeur of dances and fantasias for six instruments. Nico Muhly’s My Days has been composed as a moving tribute to Gibbons, setting a section of the autopsy report into his death, and honouring a great English Genius.