Shipwreck! Three Choirs Festival, Holy Trinity Church, Gloucester, 29 July, 2023.

5*****: David Gray & Paul Gray

Music by Josquin Desprez, Jean Jepart, Pierre de la Rue, Edmund Turges, Henry, Prince of Wales, Gilles Mureau, William Cornish ‘The Younger’, Domenico de Piacenz, Bartolomeo Trombonico, Alexander Agricola, Magistro Rofino, Juan del Encina, and of course Anon.

One of the great things about festivals like the Three Choirs is how they can bring artists together and give them space to create fascinating cross-disciplinary projects like Shipwreck! This is a piece that explores a snapshot in history, drawing on historical research, verbatim texts and contemporaneous music.

In 1506 Philip the Handsome, Duke of Burgundy, his entourage, and his army were beset by a storm on their way to Spain and forced ashore in England. Here they were entertained for months at the English Court. Shipwreck! delves into this incident. It is tremendously well researched, drawing on written reports from courtiers, such as: Henry VII’s poet laureate; Duke Philip’s Queen, Joanna the Mad; and, most tellingly, the Italian Ambassador, Vincenzo Quirini.

The part of the fleet in which the Ambassador was travelling was separated from that carrying Duke Philip, and he found himself washed up in Falmouth. Quirini’s letters, which bemoan being stuck in the uncivilized backwater of 16th Century Cornwall, is brilliantly read by James Gilchrist with character and impeccable comic timing.

The writings bring the incident vividly to life. They are full of detail about the complex political situation at the time, the diplomatic manoeuvrings, absurd courtly etiquette and regal one-upmanship. But they are also full of personal details. This is so much more than an illustrated lecture.

The music not only adds cultural context to the events, but also adds a deeply human dimension to them. This is not just music that would have been listened to by the protagonists; much of it was commissioned or even created by them.

The international nature of the adventure enables the project to draw on music from France, England, Germany, Italy and Spain. The selection is full of variety and contrast and always illustrates the events being described. Linarol Consort are skilled and versatile musicians who play not only viols – the incident brought the first viols to England - but also recorders, sackbuts and an exotic selection of early percussion.

Soprano, Héloϊse Barnard gives passionate performances of the more emotionally expressive numbers, singing with warmth and range of colour. Tenor, James Gilchrist sings with character, warmth and wit. They are both highly intelligent artists who duet with great rapport.

It is also nice to see something that explores events in the reign of Henry VII, a very competent and effective monarch. Henry is too often overlooked by the arts in favour of his more charismatic but significantly less able son, and the powerhouse that was his granddaughter, Elizabeth I.

Héloϊse Barnard – Soprano

James Gilchrist – Tenor

Linarol Consort

David Hatcher

Claire Horacek

Timothy Lin