Richard Boothby

Veteran viol player Richard Boothby, in addition to performing Baroque music, has worked to expand the contemporary repertory for his instruments. He is a longtime member of the <a href="spotify:artist:4Ld6KhVOGRdto6GPGRdAhx">Fretwork</a> ensemble.

Boothby grew up in South Wales, where his parents owned a recording of <a href="spotify:artist:4xpgBZSojKNEQqQHXrwSXA">Arturo Toscanini</a> conducting the <a href="spotify:artist:7JiZysLPLBijVnS9uWX312">NBC Symphony Orchestra</a> in Beethoven's Symphony No. 4 in B flat major, Op. 60. His school offered free instrumental tuition for students, and at 11, he was given the choice of a violin, a clarinet, or a cello. He wanted to play the oboe and confused the cello with the oboe but was too embarrassed to say anything. However, he kept on with the cello. Boothby attended Manchester University, studying musicology. He wrote an undergraduate thesis on the tonality of <a href="spotify:artist:1C1x4MVkql8AiABuTw6DgE">Wagner</a>'s Ring Cycle, and musicologist David Fallows handed him a tenor viol to demonstrate a point. Boothby became fascinated by the instrument and went on for lessons with <a href="spotify:artist:7hFhfDbLLuKBsShFx4fkYE">Charles Medlam</a> in London and then, in 1980 and 1981, at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria, with early music pioneer <a href="spotify:artist:0AeOzXbHJu8q2xqILEOLEO">Nikolaus Harnoncourt</a>. Returning to Britain, Boothby launched a freelance career while working at the Early Music Shop in London. As his performing career grew, he dropped the side hustle.

In 1984, Boothby founded the <a href="spotify:artist:23tktiGNdD0tBXE5PMe1uT">Purcell Quartet</a> and then <a href="spotify:artist:4Ld6KhVOGRdto6GPGRdAhx">Fretwork</a> in 1985. Both groups flourished, and <a href="spotify:artist:4Ld6KhVOGRdto6GPGRdAhx">Fretwork</a> remained active, with Boothby as the sole original member as of the mid-2020s. He recorded almost 50 albums with the <a href="spotify:artist:23tktiGNdD0tBXE5PMe1uT">Purcell Quartet</a> and more than 40 and counting with <a href="spotify:artist:4Ld6KhVOGRdto6GPGRdAhx">Fretwork</a>. With the latter group especially, Boothby has taken a major role in commissioning new music for the viol consort. Composers the group performed include <a href="spotify:artist:2BGRfQgtzikz1pzAD0kaEn">Elvis Costello</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:2oaB91yB6t8huanVdvYQRr">Alexander Goehr</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:2vObsQCPsbVfkqHlQOu2zc">Nico Muhly</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:5g9zIZkmU9m893xgFpbkfe">George Benjamin</a>. Boothby has also performed and recorded solo on viols unusually frequently. He has transcribed major works of <a href="spotify:artist:5aIqB5nVVvmFsvSdExz408">Bach</a> for viol, and in 2016, he joined viola da gamba player <a href="spotify:artist:20IDzRi0wyLOh0Bj40v4Sj">Christophe Coin</a> for a program of French and English repertory for two viols, and that year, he released a recording of the complete music for lyra viol of William Lawes on the <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Harmonia+Mundi%22">Harmonia Mundi</a> label. Boothby is also often heard in duo sonata repertory with the harpsichordist <a href="spotify:artist:3IGLp0T2tKCevHZ2znDhtT">Mahan Esfahani</a>. In 2018, he moved to <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Signum+Classics%22">Signum Classics</a> for a recording of Telemann fantasias, and he returned in 2023 with the album Music to Hear...: Alfonso Ferrabosco, Music for Lyra Viol from 1609. ~ James Manheim, Rovi