Essential Purcell
The Baroque pride of England, Henry Purcell defined a whole musical period in the country and wrote music history with his opera 'Dido and Aeneas'.
Read more…Purcell was born in London, probably in the late summer of 1659, and, as a highly gifted boy, was admitted to the choir of the Chapel Royal. After his voice broke, he became keeper of the king's instruments and fame followed with important positions as organist – at Westminster Abbey and then the Chapel Royal – and the composition of ceremonial works for the most important royal occasions (coronations, marriages, birthdays). In his "Orpheus Britannicus" he combined in the most sophisticated ways traditions of English church music with harmonic and contrapuntal innovations from France and Italy to produce an unmistakable personal style. His opera 'Dido and Aeneas' (1689) – a retelling of the mythic story of the lovers thwarted by their enemies' intrigues – is today one of the most frequently performed Baroque operas of all. The power, variety, solemnity and, above all, melodic beauty of Purcell's music, meanwhile, resounds across the centuries, with other famous English composers such as Edward Elgar, Gustav Holst and Benjamin Britten paying homage, whether explicitly or implicitly, to Purcell in their own works.