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Gawain Glenton’s work as a soloist and conductor takes him all over the world. He performs and records with many leading international groups and directors, such as Jordi Savall, Il Giardino Armonico, l’Arpeggiata, and Les Talens Lyriques. Gawain is a member and co-director of The English Cornett & Sackbut Ensemble, and is the founder/director of In Echo, whose debut CD ‘Music in a Cold Climate’ broke into the top-10 of the UK classical charts. As a busy recitalist, Gawain regularly performs alongside Silas Wollston, notably captured on their recital CD ‘The Myth of Venice’.
Recognised as a leading early music specialist, Silas Wollston is a versatile musician, highly respected as a continuo player, researcher and choral director. Early in his career, he was principal continuo player and assistant to Sir John Eliot Gardiner. More recently, Silas has performed and recorded with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Taverner Consort, the Academy of Ancient Music, and The English Cornett & Sackbut Ensemble.
THE MYTH OF VENICE
When Adrian Willaert arrived at St Mark’s Cathedral in 1527, Venice could at last boast of a musician of international reputation to match its growing image as a ‘city rich in gold but richer in renown, mighty in works but mightier in virtue’.
Establishing itself as a world leader in music publishing, and attracting an influx of international musicians, Venice was anything but insular, and became a centre of artistic competition. Organists would duel to outdo each other in invention and grace; while instrumentalists could show off their improvisational skills to support a lively dance culture on the streets.
Intimate yet exuberant, scholarly yet unrestrained, Gawain Glenton and Silas Wollston’s exploration of this often dazzlingly virtuosic repertoire shows how the enduring ‘myth of Venice’ was built as much in sound as in marble.