A celebration of the work of three members of the Restoration Chapel Royal: Pelham Humfrey, John Blow and their younger contemporary Henry Purcell. Humfrey’s verse anthem ‘Lift up your heads’, a rousing setting of verses from Psalm 24, and Blow’s stately ‘I was glad’ for choir, strings and trumpets set the scene for Purcell’s peerless ode to music’s patron saint.

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Music of the Restoration Chapel Royal with Amy Carson, Alexander Chance, and Anthony Gregory

Wigmore Hall

Hardly any other Baroque opera has recently gained as much popularity as »Dido and Aeneas« (1689). This entertaining and deeply moving work was penned by the congenial English composer Henry Purcell. The tear-jerking lament »When I am laid« has become famous – the climax of a tragic love affair between the Carthaginian princess Dido and the Trojan prince Aeneas. But a magical world, cunning witches and a hunting society also invite you to enjoy listening and smiling.

Monteverdi-Chor Hamburg / decorated company Berlin / Antonius Adamske

Elbphilharmonie Hamburg

Hugh Cutting made history in 2021 as the first countertenor to win the Kathleen Ferrier Award and join the roster of BBC New Generation Artists. A rising-star soloist, he was hailed by the Times as “an exceptional voice: lustrous and rounded, with power in reserve and immaculate intonation.”

The English Concert and Hugh Cutting at Wigmore Hall

This program will contain a variety of music whose structure or style is of British origin.   It will feature traditional English, Irish, and Scottish ballads as they made their way to early American settings, as well as dance forms of England borrowed by composers from other European countries.  Featured will be baroque triple harp, baroque violin/fiddle, dulcimer, tin whistle, baroque flute, and vocalists.

Three Notch’d Road Baroque Ensemble – English Baroque Structures

Garth Newel Music Center

‘A good voice… [is a] gift… so rare there is not one among a thousand that hath it’, wrote William Byrd in 1588. This didn’t put off singers wishing to try their luck: songbooks became hugely popular around the turn of the 17th century, most notably John Dowland’s groundbreaking First Booke of Songs or Ayres (1597).
This was music for performers to make their own. These works have a strongly operatic flavour, blending poetry and music to create intensely expressive drama that goes straight to the listener’s heart. Highlights include Purcell’s masterpiece In guilty night, which is held in the Academy’s Spencer Collection.

Resounding Shores: Songs, Scenes and Dialogues

Royal Academy of Music

So, the music of the London-born Purcell sits alongside masterpieces by Handel – a German who became English by choice – and Ignatius Sancho, who was born into slavery but found freedom and musical success in Georgian England. Curated by American countertenor Reginald Mobley, Sons of England weaves music and words to explore alternative histories of the English baroque, culminating in a Sancho-inspired new commission by composer Roderick Williams: musical history shaping a shared future.

The Golden Anniversary: Sons of England Academy of Ancient Music

Milton Court Concert Hall

England’s Chapel Royal, in the years before and after Oliver Cromwell’s Republic, nurtured some of the nation’s finest composers. After attending one of its services in 1662, Samuel Pepys noted how ‘the music was more full than it was’, referring to improvements made since the restoration of Charles II. Arcangelo and a dream team of singers undertake An English Baroque Journey, taking in emotionally-charged anthems by Pelham Humfrey, Maurice Greene and Matthew Locke and ending with Handel’s majestic setting of words from the Book of Psalms.

Arcangelo; Hilary Cronin soprano; Daisy Livesey soprano; James Hall countertenor; Jeremy Budd tenor; Hugo Brady tenor; Matthew Long tenor; Dominic Sedgwick bass; William Gaunt bass; Jonathan Cohen director, harpsichord

London, late 17th century . Purcell reigns over English music, surrounded by his contemporaries Blow, Eccles, Croft, composers of a golden age too quickly forgotten.

The Consort: Begin the Song

Opéra Comédie

Join Boston Baroque for an evening of two landmark English operas: John Blow’s Venus and Adonis and Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas.

John Blow

Events

Upcoming events

Oct 30, 2026

Arcangelo; Hilary Cronin soprano; Daisy Livesey soprano; James Hall countertenor; Jeremy Budd tenor; Hugo Brady tenor; Matthew Long tenor; Dominic Sedgwick bass; William Gaunt bass; Jonathan Cohen director, harpsichord · Wigmore Hall

Apr 21, 2027

The Consort: Begin the Song · Opéra Orchestre National Montpellier

23 - 25 Apr, 2027

Blow’s Venus and Adonis & Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas · Boston Baroque

Past events

Dec 16, 2025

Music of the Restoration Chapel Royal with Amy Carson, Alexander Chance, and Anthony Gregory · The English Concert

Nov 1, 2025

Monteverdi-Chor Hamburg / decorated company Berlin / Antonius Adamske · Elbphilharmonie

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