As a counterpoint to the opera The Fairy Queen, performed the previous day at the Amphithéâtre, William Christie and his allies explore a collection of sacred works by Purcell and his most illustrious contemporaries, far from the pageantry and splendour of the stage. The sublime Purcell was deeply familiar with the theatre but also mastered an entirely different aesthetic and spiritual medium, devoid of artifice and of fervent and uncluttered beauty. These qualities are also to be found in the output of Blow and Croft, peerless masters of the English Baroque and spearheads for Les Arts Florissants over many years.
Sacred works by Henry Purcell, John Blow, William Croft, and others.
