Viol consort Fretwork and mezzo soprano Helen Charlston explore the more reflective and somber Christmas celebrations of Elizabethan England, in a collection of works by William Byrd, Anthony Holborne, Orlando Gibbons, and Martin Peerson. With celebrations confined strictly to the twelve days from Christmas Eve to Epiphany, the preceding Advent was regarded as a time of religious introspection, with music composed to mark both fasting and feasting.
Fretwork: An Elizabethan Christmas
