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AN ODE ON THE DEATH OF HENRY PURCELL
Duo programme with Counter Tenor Tim Mead, Robert Getchell, François Lazarevitch and Les Musiciens de St. Julien
Touched by grace, Purcell's work eclipsed that of his contemporaries. Ten years his senior, John Blow (best known for his wonderful 'Venus and Adonis') was no less a composer of genius.
The two enjoyed a powerful friendship. In 1679 Blow, who was also Purcell's teacher, gave up his post as organist at Westminster Abbey to the twenty-year-old Purcell. Was it simple generosity or recognition of a disconcerting superiority?
With his 'Ode on the Death of Purcell', Blow gives us probably his most melodious and inventive music ever written. With a libretto by John Dryden, another friend of Purcell's, it is also his most Purcellian music...
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