大象传媒

Donald Macleod explores the music and life of Henry Purcell. Today, a whistlestop trip through the scanty facts of the composer鈥檚 biography.

Frustratingly little is known about the tragically abbreviated life of the composer who is arguably Britain鈥檚 greatest, Henry Purcell. Had he been born twenty years earlier, he would have been old enough to figure in Pepys鈥� Diary, and he might perhaps have been the object of one of the great naval administrator鈥檚 typically incisive character sketches. But by the time Purcell was taking his first steps in composition in the 1670s, Pepys had already laid down his quill. Purcell kept no diary of his own 鈥� at least none has survived 鈥� and if he was active as a letter-writer, precious little of his correspondence has come down to us. Our evidence for the facts of the composer鈥檚 life appears in a sequence of glimpses 鈥� a portrait here, an anecdote there, unvarnished entries in the official records of the time. We don鈥檛 know for certain when or where he was born, or who his father was. We know he married a woman called Frances, who may have been the daughter of a Flemish leather merchant, but we can鈥檛 be sure. We know that he had six children, four of whom died in infancy. We know that as a child he survived the Plague and the Great Fire of London, but we have no idea what took his life at the age of barely 36, or what other great masterpieces might have flowed from his pen had he survived to enjoy a more normal span of years.

鈥楽ound the trumpet鈥� (Come ye sons of art, Z323)
Andreas Scholl, Christophe Dumaux, countertenors
Accademia Bizantina

Chacony in G minor, Z730
Orchestra of The Sixteen
Harry Christophers, director

鈥業 was glad鈥�, Z19
Choir of Westminster Abbey
Harry Bicket, organ
Simon Preston, conductor

鈥楴ow does the glorious day appear鈥�, Z332
Julia Gooding, soprano
James Bowman, alto
Howard Crook, tenor
David Wilson-Johnson, Michael George, bass
Choir and Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
Gustav Leonhardt, conductor

The Indian Queen, Z630 (Act 3, extract)
Stephen Varcoe, baritone (Ismeron)
Martyn Hill, tenor (The God of Dreams)
English Baroque Soloists
John Eliot Gardiner, conductor

鈥楾hou knowest, Lord鈥�, Z58c
Winchester Cathedral Choir
London Baroque Brass
David Hill, conductor

Produced by Chris Barstow for 大象传媒 Cymru Wales