Breaking down the barriers between meditative church music and theatre music, this rich programme features sumptuous symphony anthems, including the vivid Like as the hart by Pelham Humfrey, who remains little known owing to his untimely death in his mid twenties. Charles II liked to use his violin band even in chapel, creating a special blend of intense spiritual anguish punctuated by cheerful instrumental moments

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Resounding Shores: Chamber and Chapel

Royal Academy of Music

Odes for special occasions frame this opening programme, from Purcell’s ‘From hardy climes and dangerous toils of war’, performed at the wedding of Prince George of Denmark and Princess Anne, to one of his finest and most wistfully beautiful odes, ‘Love’s goddess sure was blind’, written in 1692 for the birthday of Queen Mary. In between, we hear Locke’s ‘The Oxford Ode’, commissioned in 1672 for the annual degree ceremony at Oxford’s Sheldonian Theatre. These three odes are interspersed with fantasias for viol consort by Purcell and Locke that represent the pinnacle of a two-century-long musical tradition in England.

Matthew Locke

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Jan 19, 2025

Occasional Odes · Royal Academy of Music

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Sep 29, 2024

Resounding Shores: Chamber and Chapel · Royal Academy of Music

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