Performer Name: Chelys Consort of Viols
Show Name: The Musical Menagerie
Show Description
The viol (or viola da gamba) family, like the violin family, is comprised of different sized instruments but is fretted and played on gut strings 'a gamba' (on the leg) like a cello. The five members of the Chelys Consort of Viols are leading exponents and are joined in this show by the vocal duo Fair Oriana - https://www.fairoriana.com/about - in a programme of early music inspired by animals.
Described by Gramophone as having released 'unquestionably the most beautiful recording of the Lachrimae', Chelys have garnered a reputation for their faithful yet fresh interpretations of the consort repertoire. They take their name from an ancient Greek word which referred to a bowed lyre, said to have been invented by the god Hermes. The word was borrowed by the English violist Christopher Simpson on the title page of his treatise 'The Division Viol' when he translated the work into Latin. Perhaps this is what inspired their world premiere recording of Simpson's Airs for two trebles and two basses, a disc described as ‘wonderfully supple, propulsive and alive’ by the Guardian.