Music At Nantwen, Pembrokeshire
We host intimate concerts at Nantwen. Our concerts often sell out so please purchase your tickets below or contact us on info@nantwen.co.uk or 01239 820768 for more information. Once confirmed we will send you directions to Nantwen.
Summer Concert 2019
On the 10th of August 2019 we are delighted to be welcoming the acclaimed Viol Consort Fretwork to Nantwen for a concert entitled ‘Six Centuries’. This engaging group presents a rare concert for Pembrokeshire audiences. The Viol is an instrument that creates a sound world like no other, combine this with the acoustic in our rustic hall and the result will be breathtaking. We anticpate that this concert will sell out so early booking is advised.
For 2019 we are offering 2 ticket options. Choose from
- Full Price Ticket £18
- Full Price Ticket with dinner (Dinner is served with our Music Course Participants at 6pm, please let us know about any dietary requirements) £28
There will also be drinks served from 6pm and again in the interval (along with cake), which can be enjoyed in our wild gardens.
Fretwork
About Fretwork
In 2016, Fretwork celebrated its 30th anniversary. In these last three decades, they have explored the core repertory of great English consort music, from Taverner to Purcell, and made classic recordings against which others are judged.
In addition to this, Fretwork have become known as pioneers of contemporary music for viols, having commissioned over 40 new works. The list of composers is like the role call of the most prominent writers of our time: George Benjamin, Michael Nyman, Sir John Tavener, Gavin Bryars, Elvis Costello, Alexander Goehr, John Woolrich, Orlando Gough, Fabrice Fitch, Peter Sculthorpe, Sally Beamish, Tan Dun, Barry Guy, Andrew Keeling, Thea Musgrave, Simon Bainbridge, Poul Ruders, John Joubert, Duncan Druce & Nico Muhly.
The group now frequently presents programmes consisting entirely of contemporary music.
In 2008, they recorded two tracks on Ryuichi Sakamoto’s album ‘Out of Noise’. They now tour the United States most years, and made their Carnegie Hall debut in February of 2010.
In that year, they also curated a week-long concert series of concerts at Kings Place. The culmination of this week was the world premier of ‘The World Encompassed’ by Orlando Gough, a 70-minute piece describing in musical terms Drake’s circumnavigation of the globe in 1577-80.
In 2011, The National Centre for Early Music, in collaboration with the BBC, hosted a competition for young composers to create a four-minute piece for Fretwork. They workshopped the shortlisted pieces at the NCEM in York in October, and then the winning entries were premiered in Kings Place in December 2011.
The following year, they premiered ‘My Days’ for The Hilliard Ensemble & Fretwork by one of today’s most exciting young composers – Nico Muhly – in Wigmore Hall; while 2013 was their busiest year for a decade: they played no fewer than ten concerts in London’s major chamber music halls: Wigmore Hall, Kings Place, Cadogan Hall & the Royal College of Music.
In 2014 they continued to concentrate on the music of John Dowland with a major tour of the UK with one of todays greatest tenors: Ian Bostridge. They also spent a week in the Britten Studio in Aldeburgh re-working Orlando Gough’s ‘The World Encompassed’, to incorporate a spoken narrative drawn from contemporary accounts.
‘Slow: an In Nomine” by Nico Muhly was premiered in 2015 at Kings Place in London, and they collaborated with celebrated actor Simon Callow in the revised version of The World Encompassed and recorded it for Signum Classics.
They celebrated their 30th anniversary with a star-studded concert at Kings Place in June of 2016; and recorded four new albums, including The World Encompassed, and later that year they made their longest tour of America, taking in the USA, Canada & Colombia.
In 2018 they performed and recorded a programme celebrating the music of Michael Nyman – who is 75 in 2019 – with the exceptional counter-tenor, Iestyn Davies; and in 2019 they will tour North America with this programme.
Also in 2019, they begin a series of concerts at Wigmore Hall presenting the greatest English consort music from the Golden Age – six concerts ranging from Cornyshe to Purcell.
About the concert
Six Centuries
The viola da gamba emerged at the end of the 15th century, and has been played ever since, despite a near-death experience during the 19th century.
This programme shows how music for multiple viols has been played in each of the centuries since the first music for it was published in 1501, right up to music composed in this 21st century.
The result is a melange of styles and sounds, a various pot-pourri of composers from different nations and ages, which serve to illustrate the viol’s extraordinary range.
Programme:
Henry Purcell Two Fantasias in 4 parts (1680)
William Byrd Fantasia in 4 parts
Robert Parsons Ut re mi
John Woolrich Fantasia (1995)
Eustache de Couroy Three fantasies on ‘Une Jeune Fillete
Claude Debussy La fille aux cheveux de lin (1910)
Matthew Locke Consort of Fower Parts
INTERVAL
Giovanni Legrenzi Sonata sesta (1673) Adagio assai, Vivace, Allegro
John Jenkins 2 Fantazies in 4 parts
Edward Grieg Heimweh Op.57 No. 6 (1893)
Alfonso Ferrabosco Hexachord Fantasy
Bach Passacaglia BWV 582
Tickets:
Archive Concerts…
August 2018
Gildas Quartet
Full Programme was….
December 2017
Francesca Barritt, solo Violin
Francesca performed a wonderful progamme at Nantwen, with christmas tree, minced pies, mulled winter drinks and a roaring log fire….
Francesca embarks on a round the world trip through the ages. There will be beautiful musical offerings by Telemann, Piazzolla, De Bériot and J S Bach and also the story of the little bull who didn’t want to fight…
August 2017
Full Programme was….
Bach Contrapunctus XIX from Art of Fugue
Haydn String Quartet in D minor, Op103
Satoko Doi-Luck disperatamente!
Mozart Fourth movement (molto allegro) from String Quartet No 14, K387
BEETHOVEN String Quartet No 11, Op 95, Serioso
Leading players from the orchestra of age of enlightenment: Violinsits, Matthew Truscott and Julia Kuhn joined by Viola player Simone Jandl and Cellist Luise Buchberger
August 2017
We welcomed Francesca Barritt Violin, Lisa Obert Violin, Steve Doman Viola, for an evening of Music by Dvorak and Kodaly with delicious cake too. These three players from London visit Nantwen to tutor on our popular Chamber Music course. In this concert of music by Eastern European composers Dvorak and Kodaly we celebrate the diversity of music available for duos and trios.
Terzetto Op74 for 2 violins & viola by Antonin Dvorak
“Le Londres” Trio for 2 violins and viola by Eugene Ysaye
Bagatelles Op75 for 2 violins & viola by Antonin Dvorak
Serenade op12 for 2 violins & viola by Zoltan Kodaly