The Playfords
Björn Werner – vocals
Annegret Fischer – recorders
Claudia Mende – baroque violin
Benjamin Dreßler – viola da gamba
Nora Thiele – percussion
Erik Warkenthin – baroque guitar, lute, chitarrone
The Playfords developed a distinctive authentic, innovative and danceable Early Music Style over the last 20 years of their existence. They are one of the few ensembles improvising extempore on stage and thus embody truthfully authenticity of historically informed performance. Their sources of creativity are music, texts and life of the 16th and 17th century in Europe and beyond. History, tradition & evergreens are woven into holistic concept programmes and blossom in new arrangements.
Early music, Folk, Pop, Jazz, non-European Music, Poetry, Dance, Art, Visual Arts and Theater are metamorphosed into I n s p i r e d E a r l y M u s i c .
The ensemble The Playfords is named after John and Henry Playford’s collection “The English Dancing Master” (1651). A Real Book of it’s time providing notated Hit-melodies on fitting dance steps. Harmonies and Bass were to be improvised by the performing musicians, their essential character determined by those own predilections and particular talents. This was a welcome challenge to any virtuosic musician’s creativity – then as well as now.
The Playfords have performed regularly at international festivals since 2005, including as part of the “Oude Muziek Utrecht” Fringe festival, at the Gewandhaus Leipzig, Schloss Tirol, MDR-Musiksommer, Bach-Biennale Weimar, Stockstädter Blockflötenfesttage, Philharmonie Berlin, Konzerthaus Berlin, to Belarus in cooperation with Goethe Institut and at the EXPO 2015 in Milan and many more. So far seven CDs have been released at Coviello Classics, Raumklang and DHM.
With their yearly Playgroundfestival of early music folk in Weimar the format of “Early Music Jam Sessions” and different crossover programmes with Latin, Iraqi, English, Italian, German, Austrian and Dutch Musicians have been created (Latin Baroque, Shakespeare’s Musicke & Dounce, Trialogue of Religions, L’Arte da Vinci).
“The best entertainment meets brilliant playing”
There are plenty of ensembles performing early music, including countless truly top-class ones. Top-class ensembles with a unique selling point, however, are rarer. The Thuringian band “The Playfords” undoubtedly falls into the category with the double label. Their name is somewhat telling and refers to a pioneer and early promoter of popular musical art: With his collection of sheet music “The English Dancing Master,” the British publisher John Playford introduced the nation, across all social classes, to singing, playing music, and dancing in 1651. The lively quintet, featuring Bjorn Werner (vocals), Annegret Fischer (recorders), Erik Warkenthin (Renaissance lute and Baroque guitar), Benjamin Dreßler (viola viol), and Nora Thiele (percussion), directly builds on this tradition. However, it does so by cultivating a special quality of the Renaissance era: the art of improvisation, spontaneous musical intuition, and the idea of the moment. This is difficult and only becomes easier when proven experts are at work and, on top of that, something like a musical parlando emerges, which places the enjoyment of lively debate above the script, protected by a safety net and a double bottom. With their unusual concept, with which they have enjoyed great success worldwide for 24 years, the “Playfords” not only bring these 400-year-old musical treasures into the present as museum reminiscences, but also breathe new life and contemporary relevance into them. Paired with the best entertainment, brilliant playing, and a generous dose of humor.
(Gertie Pohlit in “Die Rheinpfalz”, April 7, 2025)