Iestyn Davies and Fretwork: “Lamento” Concert

Countertenor Iestyn Davies makes his debut performance with EMSI, in the company of the incomparable British viol consort, Fretwork.

Widely recognized as one of the world’s finest singers, Iestyn Davies is the recipient of two Gramophone Awards, a Grammy Award, a RPS Award for Young Singer of the Year, the Critics’ Circle Award and recently an Olivier Award Nomination. He was appointed MBE in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours List 2017 for services to music.

Fretwork has been setting the standard for the viol consort performance for over 35 years. Their impressive recordings of late Renaissance and early Baroque consort music have been universally praised, and the ensemble has toured throughout the world to great acclaim.

The concert will feature an exploration of exquisite and deeply spiritual 17th-century German repertoire.

A beloved genre in the Baroque era, the lamento’s origins lay in early 17th century Italian opera, before finding its way into sacred music. It was quickly embraced by German sacred composers, who used its expressive nature to depict the sorrow of mankind’s sin and the tragic Passion of Christ. Johann Christoph Bach (1642-1703)’s Ach, dass ich Wassers gnug hätte, his best-known work that laments the sinfulness of humanity, forms the foundation of this programme that traverses across Baroque Germany.