Fretwork

John Dryden’s assertion that “great wits are sure to madness near allied” is a key thread of this year’s Cheltenham festival. Dryden’s Music for a While, set by Purcell, also gave the title to Iestyn Davies’s morning recital with Fretwork, where the immaculate sound of Davies’s countertenor did beguile all cares. His delivery seems understated, yet every syllable and emotion is carefully focused as to draw the listener into the heart of the music; melancholic anguish in the case of John Dowland, sexual in that of Carlo Gesualdo.

Fretwork’s performance of music for viol consort by William Lawes paled slightly in comparison with the thrilling glow of Davies’s singing, but the partnership realised a creative dynamic with bass violist Richard Boothby’s arrangements of 20th-century English songs by Warlock and Britten. The viols’s misty aura was magic and underlined the potent resonance of early English composers for those later. The exquisite artistry of the word-painting – Davies sweet-toned, yet often darkly distinctive of timbre – made it unforgettable.