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Known as the ‘English Orpheus’, Henry Purcell, born in London in 1659, began his career as a chorister in the Chapel Royal, an appointment that was to mark the start of his life‐long commitment to the monarchy. Today his music occupies a central position in British culture and is celebrated for its exquisite word‐setting, abundant use of expression and attractive melody; comprising 16 CDs, this compilation pays homage to a composer who, in spite of assimilating the then predominant French and Italian styles, was able to create a uniquely English form of Baroque music.

The collection effectively traces the length and breadth of Purcell’s output, from the many sacred works he was required to provide for state occasion and worship (‘Hear My Prayer, O Lord’ and ‘Hail! bright Cecilia’, among others) to secular instrumental and vocal music, written for domestic pleasure as well as the theatre.

Semi‐operas, anthems, odes, suites, songs, fantasias: Purcell’s oeuvre was a vast and pioneering one – all the more impressive in view of his untimely death – and the collection presents a selection of his most famous creations (Dido and Aeneas, for example whose first known performance was at a girls’ boarding school in Chelsea) alongside works which are not so widely known.

With its veritable Astar list of performers and ensembles, this is the perfect compilation for anyone wishing to explore Purcell’s music in greater depth. Who knows what else Purcell may have achieved, had he lived beyond the tender age of 36: this collection is a testament to his indefatigable genius, one which Britain lacked until the arrival of Elgar two centuries later.

A rare treat: no less than 7 CDs with instrumental chamber music by Henry Purcell. In spite of his past and present international fame too little attention has been paid to this part of his oeuvre. This collection offers a great variety: from ‘the Staircase overture’ to voluntaries for organ.

Henry Purcell’s present fame is mainly based on some dramatic works. Dido and Aeneas -, his anthems and numerous songs. In his relatively short life he managed to compose in every genre usual at the time. Well hidden among a vast amount of vocal music lies a relatively small collection of chamber music pieces. Together with Handel Henry Purcell was and is England’s most important baroque composer. He was also an organist and as such left behind remarkable little for his instrument. Pieter-Jan Belder - the keyboard player who also recorded the complete Scarlatti sonatas - combined this with Purcell’s varied music for harpsichord, which includes eight suites. Here (together with) his ensemble Musica Amphion (he) also performs the bulk of Purcell’s chamber music: listen and enjoy.

Such was his renown in the musical world ('one of the most celebrated Masters of the Science of Musick in the Kingdom and scarce inferior to any in Europe'), when Henry Purcell tragically died aged only 36 in 1695, he was essentially afforded a state funeral. This collection brings together the composer's complete works for strings.

Showing Purcell's success as a cutting-edge composer, both sets of sonatas showcase the contrapuntal technique with which he would become so intimately linked, demonstrating the techniques that Purcell detailed in John Playford's The Introduction to the Skill of Musick of 1694.

The act of pushing the boundaries of composition here is in stark contrast to the Fantasias, which resurrected a form that had been long since forgotten. The use of the viol - rather than its more modern counterpart, the violin - is also a curious choice, but this series of works may in fact be the last written for viol consort. Among them in this special collection is the magnificent 'Golden Sonata' as well as the 'One Note Fantasia', in which the tenor viol plays a sustained middle C for the entire piece, perhaps showing Purcell's impish sense of humour, with the part being intended for a particularly unskilled player.

The works are performed by Musica Amphion, a group dedicated to performing works of the 17th and 18th centuries on period instruments. The ensemble was formed in 1993 by harpsichordist Pieter-Jan Belder and the leader is violinist Rémy Baude, who is also concertmaster of Frans Brüggen's Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century.

Two splendid Baroque operas, one famous (Dido), the other a pleasant surprise (Pan & Syrinx)

Performed on period instruments and conducted with verve and dramatic insight by baroque specialist Jed Wentz. The name John Ernest Galliard may be unfamiliar to many. He was German born, but took British citizenship, and settled in London in 1706. He was a chamber musician to Prince George of Denmark, and was also organist at Somerset House, and an oboist in the opera orchestra under Handel.He wrote many operas and other stage works, and Pan and Syrinx was premiered in Lincoln’s Inn Fields Theatre in 1718. Pan and Syrinx provides the perfect foil to Purcell’s dark masterpiece Dido and Aeneas.

Both works portray loves destructive powers, though in different ways. Galliard’s treatment is light and comic, Purcell’s tragic and destructive. These are period practice performances, and for Dido, Jed Wentz has used several dances and one chorus by Purcell to fill in gaps in the score as the libretto mentions musical scenes that have been lost.

Recording made by WDR in 2004.

Fascinating coupling of one of the great masterpieces of English music with a rare work by a fellow German contemporary of Handel who also made London his home.

In 1692 the ‘musical society’, a group of musicians and amateur including the publisher John Playford, initiated a specifically British annual celebration to celebrate St Cecilia’s Day on 22 November. The festivities were to include singers from Westminster Abbey, St Paul’s Cathedral and the Chapel Royal, along with musicians from the King’s band and from the London theatres. Purcell’s composed two Odes for these occasions – the first ‘Welcome All the Pleasures’ was completed in 1683, and the second, ‘Hail Bright Cecilia’, in 1692. It is laid out for a large group of instrumentalists and singers, and runs to 40 minutes. The opulent style of writing, and the sheer inventiveness and freedom of Purcell’s inspiration laid the foundations for Handel’s oratorios 25 years later. It is the grandest and most brilliant vocal work to be composed in England prior to the advent of Handel.

Booklet notes and sung texts.

‘This performance is exceptionally receptive to the brilliance of the score. The trumpets are bold and brassy (only occasionally overblown) and the ensemble as a whole moves effortlessly from discretion and intimacy to the imposing timbral homogeneity of McCreesh's most extrovert Venetian exploits. His tempos - especially in the grand opening instrumental sinfonia – are irrepressible and invigorating.’ Gramophone 1995

Recording made in 1994.

Gramophone magazine ‘Editor’s Choice’ in July 1995.

2009 is the 350th anniversary of Purcell’s birth, and his music will be the focus of much attention in the media and in live performance.

Paul McCreesh and the Gabrieli Consort are supreme in this repertoire.

Purcell was not just a creature of the theatre – his genius with the human voice extended to secular songs and Odes for Queen Mary. Less familiar are his sacred songs. Although some appeared in John Playford’s Harmonia Sacra of 1688 and 1693, many remained in manuscript and known only to a select few. There is some credence to the thought that Purcell intended them for an elite group. The choice of text is fastidious, and probably points towards a discerning friend in the court musical circles. For example, the metaphysical poets were out of fashion at this time, but whoever Purcell’s intended audience was, such poets remained a firm favourite for the composer. Other texts are by his contemporaries at court, lavished with as much care and attention as the settings from the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer. The settings are scored for small forces – one to two voices, accompanied by continuo. The emotional range, however, is huge, with contemplative and introspective songs rubbing shoulders with numbers such as ‘O, I’m sick of life’, where the singer rails against a cruel avenging God. In the setting ‘In guilty night’ or ‘Saul and the Witch of Endor’, you can sense the world of opera is never far away. This recording intersperses the sacred songs with organ works – Purcell was one of the most brilliant organists of his day, but surprisingly he only left about six works for the instrument.

Not strictly speaking an opera, King Arthur, or The British Worthy is a ‘semi-opera’. Semi-operas were dramas in four or five acts, with lengthy musical sections. The main characters only speak, and the musical narrative is the preserve of the minor characters – nymphs and such like. John Dryden, who provided Purcell with the libretto in 1691, commented that ‘Purcell was the equal to the best (composer) abroad’, and that in King Arthur ‘my art on this occasion, ought to be subservient to his’. The story depicts the battles that the Britons, lead by Arthur, fight and win against the Saxons and their leader Oswald. Urged on by the evil spirit Grimbauld, the Saxons resort to ever more cunning tactics. Arthur magnanimously forgives the Saxons upon his victory, and the work ends with a patriotic masque praising Britain, her people, values and nature.

Purcell provided a vivid score, with some of his finest music, and the ‘Frost’ scene in Act 3 foreshadows Vivaldi in many ways. It also provides the inspiration for Michael Nyman’s music for the Peter Greenway film The Draughtsman’s Contract set in the 17th century.

‘He (Pinnock) has an orchestra of glittering skill, often used with considerable delicacy … sounding wonderfully persuasive on plucked instruments … His soloists are also good, all of them sometimes exceptionally so.’ Gramophone

November 1694 was a busy month for Purcell. First, the triumphant return to London of King William III from the campaign in Flanders saw the composer produce a new anthem depicting the vanquishing of the King’s enemies. Secondly, for the celebration of St Cecilia’s Day, composed not the expected ode, but a Te Deum and a Jubilate. The Te Deum is full of grandeur, with the extra trumpets adding some thrilling drama to sections of the work. The scoring is also intimate, with some of Purcell’s most personal music – especially ‘ Vouchsafe, O Lord’, where the piling up of dissonances depicts a cry for mercy remarkable for the period.

These two works are masterpieces in Purcell’s output. However, the triumph was to be short-lived. In December 1694 a smallpox epidemic swept London, and Queen Mary died on 28 December. Purcell produced some of his greatest music for the Funeral Sentences, which he composed for her burial Setting words found in The Book of Common Prayer, Purcell’s music is moving and austere, and the sense of grief is almost palpable. The muted drums and Flatt trumpets in the Canzona leave a lasting impression on the listener. Purcell himself was dead eleven months later, aged 36.

Michael Chance is a renowned exponent of this repertoire.

Florilegium has won many awards for its sensitive chamber-music-making in the Barock era.

Spanning his short creative life, Purcell’s Songs are a constant feature in his output. In between official Odes, the semi-operas and instrumental music is a profusion of wonderfully intimate, sometimes bawdy and explicit songs. Written for his circle of friends the texts are from a variety of sources – Shakespeare and Dryden understandably loom large among the poets whose words were set by Purcell. In 1698 his songs were published complete in Orpheus Britannicus .

Purcell composed only one true opera, and the form known as ‘semi opera’ was the most popular in England at the time. In these works the actors did not sing. Musical interludes either of vocal numbers or instrumental music punctuated the action. The second half of this CD contains examples of the instrumental music Purcell provided for Dioclesan and Timon of Athens.

The Fairy Queen is one of Purcell’s most popular operas, based on Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. It contains some of his best music, both vocal and instrumental, giving proof of Purcell’s theatrical genius. A strong English cast is supported by the brilliant and zesty ensemble of Accademia Bizantina, conducted by Ottavio Dantone, a leading specialist in the Early Music scene. New addition to the Brilliant Classics Opera Collection.

Prior to Handel’s arrival in London, and the influence of Italian opera that he brought with him, English opera was known as ‘semi opera’ – a blend of drama, music, spoken word, elaborate stage sets, costumes and special effects. Roger North, a contemporary observer, described the genre rather disparagingly, complaining: ‘Some come for the play and hate the musick, others come onely for the musick, and the drama is penance to them, and scarce any are well reconciled to both’. However,‘semi opera’ nevertheless inspired Purcell to compose some remarkable theatre music, with The Fairy Queen his masterpiece in the genre. This semi-opera is based somewhat freely on Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and was given its premiere at the Dorset Garden Theatre, London in 1692. The performance was a huge success, and went through a successful revision, before the score mysteriously vanished.

In 1701, six years after Purcell’s death, a reward was announced for its return. However, it was 200 years before the music was finally recovered in the library of the Royal Academy of Music in 1903. The Fairy Queen contains some of Purcell’s finest music, and the masques at the end of each act stand out as masterpieces of Baroque opera.The magical world of Titania and Oberon is superbly evoked by the music – night, winter, sleep, love, magic and comedy are all brilliantly realised in highly atmospheric settings.