Henry Purcell and his time
"If love is a sweet passion, why does it torment me so?"
The important English composer Henry Purcell went down in music history as "Orpheus Britannicus". Born 350 years ago, he died in 1695 at the height of his creative powers at the age of only 36.
His extraordinary importance is based above all on the great success of his stage music. Even during his lifetime, individual songs from these semioperas took on a life of their own as "hits" for consort or as songs with lute accompaniment.
Purcell poses the question of the different characteristics of disappointed, fulfilled, passionate or languishing love in a way that was unusual for the time.
His contemporaries praised him for eliciting from the English language a musical power to trigger affect that was at best attributed to Italian.
Purcell's music is characterised by masterly counterpoint and often unexpected melody and harmony.
This programme features works by Henry Purcell and his predecessor Matthew Locke, lutenist and viola da gamba player John Jenkins and other composers of this late heyday of viol music.
Late 17th century works by Purcell, Locke, Finger, Jenkins
Instrumentation: soprano, 4 viols, lute (6 performers)