[USED:Cond.AB] (Gamba)Goldberg Variations : Fretwork (2CD)

Johann Sebastian Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV988
arranged for viols by Richard Boothby

Fretwork

Reocrded: 03/2011

The Goldberg Variations are a pinnacle of Bach’s art. Conceived for harpsichord, the work has been transcribed forquite different instruments. . . Richard Boothby’s version for his own consort of viols, Fretwork, is arguably the mostunusual, in that it opts for a soundworld that looks even further back in time. Part of the justification for such a settingmust be Bach’s own liking for viola da gamba, already then old-fashioned.... Boothby’s setting is dexterously dividedbetween various combinations of the treble, tenor and bass viols, and he achieved some magical effects, notably (...) invariations of gossamerpassagework."The Guardian (concert review)

Fretwork is a consort of viols based in England, United Kingdom. Formed in 1986, the group consisted of six players. Itsrepertoire consists primarily of music of the Renaissance period, in particular that of Elizabethan and Jacobean England,arrangements of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, and contemporary music written for them. ( harmonia mundi )