Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. This year marks the 400th anniversary of Orlando Gibbons’s death. Straddling the Renaissance and the Baroque, ...

For more than 30 years, English early-music ensemble Fretwork has dedicated itself to the repertoire of a single stringed instrument. The viol—also known as the viola da gamba—reached the height of ...

However, This Year's Midnight, performed in near-darkness, and billed as a meditation of songs, poetry and instrumental music for the winter solstice, is more ambitious and ranges more widely across ...

It’s probably musical heresy to suggest it, but arguably, the instrumental works of John Dowland and Johann Strauss II share a common feature: dancing. Indubitably, unlike a Viennese waltz, a galliard ...

The architecture and decorative arts of the late 19th century were greatly influenced by the Aesthetic Movement, which began in the 1870s. It was the beginning of an age of ornament and beauty for ...

For the 400th anniversary of the death of both Byrd and Weelkes, The King’s Singers and Fretwork join forces to reflect the contrasts, and parallels, between the two composers ...

It’s a gorgeous work of homage – a “ritualised memory piece” – to a composer Muhly (pictured below) clearly reveres, finding correlations and correspondences between Gibbons’ writing and Muhly’s own ...

The viol consort Fretwork celebrated its 30 th birthday on Friday with an evening of music representing the development of the ensemble’s repertoire across the years. The five current regular members ...

Votaries of Early Music Vancouver (EMV) convened last week in downtown Christ Church Cathedral, their customary shrine, for yet another born-again experience. Officiating clergy at last week’s ...