It is just over a week ago that we were in the middle of an intensive three day rehearsal in the welcoming home of Annabel and Gerald of Angel Early Music.  It was very useful to have uninterrupted days to work on the 35 selected pieces from the collection known as MS 18 810 that we will be recording in the middle of February.

Recording a CD is an expensive business and if you would like to help us on our journey to record this collection of exquisite 16th century gems from the Low Countries, France and Germany we would be very happy to hear from you linarolconsort@gmail.com or have a look at the buying the disk in advance or being a sponsor page of our website. Many thanks to all those who have prepaid for the CD and our sponsors.

It was also wonderful to have a large room to rehearse in because we played 7 of Richard Jones’ Linarol style renaissance viols: 1 C treble, 2 G tenors, 3 D basses and 1 great A bass. We need all the instruments as we play half the repertoire in a high consort: treble, tenor, tenor & D bass, and the other half in a low consort: tenor, bass, bass & A bass.

At the end of the three days we performed a concert for 20 extremely appreciative lovers of renaissance viol consort music. It was great fun to end the evening by chatting with the friendly audience over a bowl of chilli before we made the long journey home. We would like to thank Annabel and Gerald enormously for looking after us so generously.In last week’s concert we performed about two thirds of the repertoire that we will be recording, and next week have a concert to play the other third.  You are all very welcome to the coffee concert at 11am on Thursday 30th January, at Sophie’s Barn near Banbury. It is free to attend but you do need to book seats as space is limited. We’re looking forward to seeing you there and sharing more of this wonderful music with you.  Please share this blog and sign up to our mailing list to hear all our news by clicking here. Thank you!