An Elizabethan Christmas: Byrd, Holborne, Gibbons, Peerson, Weelkes Helen Charlston, Emma Walshe, Amy Lyddon, Lucy Cox

• William Byrd (1543 - 1623):
• 1 Byrd: Out of the Orient Crystal Skies 03:37
• Anthony Holborne (1545 - 1602):
• 2 Holborne: Pavan 02:00
• 3 Holborne: As It Fell on Holie Eve 01:00
• William Byrd:
• 4 Byrd: From Virgin’s Womb – Rejoice, Rejoice 06:49
• Anthony Holborne:
• 5 Holborne: The Cradle 02:54
• 6 Holborne: Lullabie 01:33
• William Byrd:
• 7 Byrd: Lullaby 12:40
• Orlando Gibbons (1583 - 1625):
• 8 Gibbons: 7 Fantasias 'for Ye Great Dooble Bass': No. 1 a 4 04:41
• William Byrd:
• 9 Byrd: An Earthly Tree – Cast off All Doubtful Care 06:19
• Martin Peerson (1571 - 1650):
• 10 Peerson: Attendite 04:34
• 11 Peerson: Upon my Lap, my Sovereign Sits 07:14
• Thomas Weelkes (1576 - 1623):
• 12 Weelkes: To Shorten Winter’s Sadnesse 02:34
• Orlando Gibbons:
• 13 Gibbons: 7 Fantasias 'for Ye Great Dooble Bass': No. 2 a 4 04:56
• Anonymous:
• 14 Sweet was the Song the Virgin sang 02:10
• Anthony Holborne:
• 15 Holborne: The New-yeares Gift 01:21
• 16 Holborne: Heigh Ho Holiday 00:59
• William Byrd:
• 17 Byrd: O God That Guides the Cheerful Sun 05:58
• Total Runtime 01:11:19

Info for An Elizabethan Christmas: Byrd, Holborne, Gibbons, Peerson, Weelkes

Das Gambenconsort Fretwork und Mezzosopranistin Helen Charlston erkunden hier mit Werken von William Byrd, Anthony Holborne, Orlando Gibbons und Martin Peerson einmal die besinnlichen und verhaltenen Weihnachtsfeierlichkeiten im Elisabethanischen England. Besonders die dem Fest Christi Geburt vorangehende Adventszeit galt damals als eine Zeit der stillen, religiösen Innenschau, mit Musik, die sowohl auf das Fasten als auch auf die kommenden Festlichkeiten komponiert wurde. Besonders Byrds Consort Songs für Singstimme und fünf Gamben decken genau diese Periode ab und beschwören eine Weihnachtszeit ganz ohne den heutigen hyperaktiven Konsumrausch.

Helen Charlston, Mezzosopran
Ensemble Fretwork

Helen Charlston
Recent concert highlights include debuts with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra (Handel Messiah/Stephen Layton), Royal Northern Sinfonia (Mendelssohn Lobgesang/Paul McCreesh) and at the Palau de la Musica in Barcelona (Bach Matthew Passion/Gabrieli Consort and Players); a worldwide tour of Handel Messiah with the Seattle Symphony, the Western Australian Symphony Orchestra and Adelaide Symphony Orchestra; performances as part of Barbican Sound Unbound 2019 and solo recitals at York Early Music Festival, London Handel Festival, Händel-festspiele Halle, Korčula Baroque Festival, Leicester International Music Festival and Fitzrovia Festival. Helen is a BBC New Generation Artist (2021-2023).

Helen won First Prize in the 2018 Handel Singing Competition, was a Rising Star of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment for 2017-19 and is a 2018 City Music Foundation Artist. This season she will make debuts with Academy of Ancient Music, Cambridge Handel Opera Company, Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra and the Concertgebouw Kammerorchestra, as well as joining Fretwork for a solo recital programme at Wigmore Hall and York Early Music Christmas Festival. She will premiere the role of Anna in the newly completed opera Blue Electric by Tom Smail and will continue her commissioning project of lute songs with duo partner Toby Carr.

Operatic roles include Messaggera & Prosperpina/L’Orfeo (Monteverdi), Penelope/Il Ritorno d’Ilisse in patria (Monteverdi), First Witch/Dido and Aeneas, Olga/Eugene Onegin, Florence Pike/AlbertHerring, Ino/Semele, Sara/Tobias and the Angel (Dove) and Dinah/Trouble in Tahiti (Bernstein). Helen created the role of Dido in the premiere of a new chamber opera based on Virgil’s writings about Dido: Dido is Dead, by young composer Rhiannon Randle.

Often heard on BBC Radio 3 in live concert relays, Helen features on recordings of Bach B Minor Mass (Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment/Trinity College Choir), and Bach ActusTragicus & Himmelskönig sei willkommen (Amici Voices/Amici Baroque Players), both available from Hyperion. The “mesmerising delivery” of her aria in BWV 182 on the Amici Voices CD was singled out by Gramophone Magazine as the highlight of the recording. This season she will record John Eccles Semele (Juno) with Cambridge Handel Opera Company and the Academy of Ancient Music.

Helen began singing as chorister and head chorister of the St Albans Abbey Girls Choir. She then studied music at Trinity College, Cambridge where she held a choral scholarship for four years and was a scholar on the Pembroke College Lieder Scheme, led by Joseph Middleton.

Booklet for An Elizabethan Christmas: Byrd, Holborne, Gibbons, Peerson, Weelkes