This fascinating programme presents a vivid glimpse of domestic music-making in Shakespeare’s England by focussing on the tradition of playing divisions on a ground bass – the equivalent of our jazz tradition. Skilled musicians would improvise over a repeated chord sequence (the ‘ground’) or play variations on a popular tune, often with astonishing inventiveness and virtuosity.

The programme includes ingenious rounds by Thomas Ravenscroft, the first folksong collector, lute songs by Thomas Campion, Nicholas Lanier and others, and instrumental solos or duos based on popular tunes, including some used by Shakespeare, such as Greensleeves, ‘O Death rock me asleep’ and ‘Qui passa’.

Jacob Heringman and Susanna Pell have been musical colleagues for almost 25 years and have both enjoyed distinguished careers, Jacob as a soloist and with many prominent period ensembles, Susanna as a freelance performer and member of the groups Fretwork and the Dufay Collective. In Pellingmans’ Saraband they explore the unique sonority of bowed and plucked fretted instruments, bringing some of the greatest music of the Renaissance and early Baroque to life. They are joined by the soprano Faye Newton, making a welcome return to the Festival, and a special group of singers convened from Psalmody and other groups by Andrew Spencer.

‘Each instrument complemented and framed the melody and harmony of the other, and the effect was infinitely more than the sum of the parts … The audience loved it’ Hexham Courant.