Purcell’s large-scale ode alongside very good anthems by his contemporaries Humfrey & Blow from The English Live performance & Harry Bicket at Wigmore Corridor

The Stationers’ Corridor the place Purcell’s Hail, Brilliant Cecilia was premiered in 1692

Humfrey: O Lord my God, Blow: I used to be glad, Purcell: Three Elements upon a Floor, Hail brilliant Cecilia; Amy Carson, Alexander Probability, Anthony Gregory, Nicolas Brooymans, The English Live performance, Harry Bicket; Wigmore Corridor
Reviewed 16 December 2025 

Purcell’s largest ode for St Cecilia alongside music by two of his contemporaries brings a placing component of evaluate and distinction in fantastically vivid performances. 

There’s a grim component of ‘final man standing’ about English music within the late seventeenth century. Pelham Humfrey, John Blow (two years youthful than Humfrey) and Henry Purcell (ten years youthful than Blow) all discovered their commerce as trebles within the Chapel Royal, reconstituted by King Charles II after the Restoration. The Interregnum meant that there have been few senior composers of their approach and for a number of years, life will need to have appeared thrilling and stuffed with promise. Humfrey was despatched to France and Italy by the King. However his time was short-lived, he died aged solely 27 in 1674. Three years later, Matthew Locke died, one of many few pre-Civil Struggle composers to return on the Restoration. This left Blow and Purcell, however Purcell’s precocious expertise meant that Blow stood apart for his proficient pupil and buddy. Solely, Purcell died on the age of 36. 

Enjoying ‘what if’ we are able to marvel what English music would have been like if Purcell had lived. However take that additional and think about an England the place Humfrey lived too, making English music the province of a trio of buddies and colleagues.

The newest live performance at Wigmore Corridor from The English Live performance and Harry Bicket on 16 December 2025 introduced these ideas to the fore as they carried out Purcell’s large-scale ode Hail, brilliant Cecilia alongside substantial anthems by Humfrey and Blow. The ensemble was joined by soprano Amy Carson, countertenor Alexander Probability, tenor Anthony Gregory and bass Nicolas Brooymans for Humfrey’s O Lord my God, Purcell’s Three Elements upon a Floor, Blow’s I used to be glad and Purcell’s Hail, brilliant Cecilia.

The English Live performance was directed from the harpsichord by Harry Bicket with an ensemble led by Charlotte Spruit (single strings plus oboes/recorders, trumpets and timpani) with a continuo group together with Sergio Bucheli (theorbo), Jonathan Byers (cello), Alexander Jones (bass) and Tom Foster (harpsichord/organ). The 4 soloists have been joined by 4 ripieno singers, Ailsing Kenny, Nathan Mercieca, Edward Woodhouse and Christopher Webb to make a vocal ensemble of eight.

Pelham Humfrey’s music was an enormous affect on his contemporaries, nevertheless it stays comparatively unexplored, although discs like that from Joseph McHardy and the Choir of Her Majesty’s Chapel Royal on Delphian have began to open this repertoire up [see my review]. Our view of Humfrey, although, can be relatively colored by Pepys’ remarkably catty remarks in regards to the man after Humfrey returned from France [see the entry for 15 November 1667].

Humfrey’s verse anthem, O Lord my God, might be his most interesting surviving work. Revealed in 1674 it’s a setting of Psalm 22.  The instrumental introduction was intense with chromaticism used to placing impact and the opening dramatic declamation for bass soloist Nicolas Brooymans introduced out the tortured depth of the phrases. A duet for Alexander Probability and Anthony Gregory was much less upfront and extra intimate, with the 2 voices interleaving over simply continuo. The refrain started remarkably hymn-like however developed in depth. With the second verse we returned to Brooymans’ vivid declamation, following by extra intimate passages for Probability and Gregory, however then Humfrey positioned the voices in dialogue to placing impact: the robust bass solo contrasting with the extra plangent alto and tenor duet. When the refrain returned, it was hushed, making a placing finish. There was one thing powerfully idiosyncratic in regards to the piece, demonstrating Humfrey’s willingness to make use of what he had discovered of French and Italian music to deliver out the tortured depth of the phrases.

Purcell’s Three Elements on a Floor dates from round 1678 (solely 4 years after Humfrey’s verse anthem). It’s a work from Purcell’s late teenagers, when he was coming to the top of his apprenticeship and eager to indicate off. Right here we had three violins (Charlotte Spruit, Manami Mizumoto, Cristina Prats-Costa) in a always altering, vivid dialogue over continuo floor bass, the music exhibiting a outstanding sense of fantasy and the three enjoying with fantastic vigour.

The service marking the formal opening and consecration of St Paul’s Cathedral (in Sir Christopher Wren’s rebuilding) featured Purcell’s D main Te Deum and Jubilate. John Blow wrote his setting of I used to be glad for a similar service, matching Purcell’s items by way of forces wanted and large-scale seriousness. However there was homage too, because the service got here in 1697, two years after Purcell’s demise.

A vigorous instrumental introduction which mixed grandeur with a pleasant bounce to the rhythms led to a luxurious opening refrain. Blow structured the work by alternating choruses with solo verses, very a lot as Purcell had finished along with his sacred music. The choruses have been usually vigorous and vivid, and even when extra restrained a way of vigour developed. There was richness of texture too, the music elaborate and imaginative. The verse passages started with an intense trio for Probability, Gregory and bass Christopher Webb. Afterward within the piece, Probability was joined by countertenor Nathan Mercieca for a duet that includes their two elaborately intertwining traces over continuo. An extra trio for Probability, Gregory and Webb started lyrically however vigour returned after which Probability had a remarkably free solo that includes trumpets as properly resulting in the resounding conclusion.

By 1692, the Musical Society’s annual odes to St Cecilia have been properly established. Purcell had written Welcome all pleasures for them in 1683, however in 1692 his Hail, Brilliant Cecilia was altogether bigger in scale and conception. Purcell’s orchestra consists of strings, continuo, oboes, recorders and trumpets. However his use of everyone seems to be spare, for a begin oboes double recorders, and elsewhere he’s simply as proud of continuo bringing in the remainder of the devices to make a degree. It’s price taking into account that the trumpets with out valves have been relatively restricted by way of notes and keys in order that any work utilizing them has to cycle again to sure keys.

Nevertheless, the Symphony made it clear that Purcell’s conception was massive in scale, with a formidable sequence of actions that began to appear ‘symphonic’ in an anachronistic use of the phrase. The opening refrain was richly textured, with an actual sense of voices and devices intertwining. This was Purcell’s writing appropriately, versus a refrain merely accompanied by orchestra. The second refrain alternated terrific duets with extra vigorous ensemble. ‘Hark, every Tree’ featured Gregory and Webb in duet, the place pointed, expressive rhythms gave the music a way of the dance. ‘Tis natures voice’ noticed Probability in splendidly rhapsodic type, taking his time over the gildings. His alto voice has a nice edge to it which fits this music, usually written hovering between alto and excessive tenor. Soprano Amy Carson lastly received her second with ‘Thou tun’st this world beneath’ that includes a pair of perky oboes towards Carson’s admirably clear gildings. ‘With that elegant celestial lay’ featured Brooymans in dialogue with the duet of Probability and Gregory. Rhapsodic and expansive, the music displayed the vivid number of Purcell’s method to phrase setting. Brooymans hymn to the organ – ‘wondrous machine’ was finely sonorous, contrasting with the remarkably perky instrumental contributions. Gregory attacked ‘The Ethereal Violin’ with vivid vigour, then was in plangent duet with Probability for ‘the Am’rous Flute’. Each basses gave us wealthy, vibrant tone for his or her duet ‘Let these amongst themselves’, and the ultimate sequence alternated vigorous tutti with much less upfront moments.

The Stationers’ Corridor close to St Paul’s was the venue for the work’s first efficiency. In dimension, it was not not like Wigmore Corridor so use of girls aside (Purcell’s ensemble would have included boys) we may think about the primary efficiency may need been one thing akin to what we heard. Besides there was nothing academically discovered about this efficiency. Singers and gamers wore their studying flippantly, and what came to visit was Bickett’s care to deliver out most distinction in Purcell’s writing and the performer’s sheer enjoyment of the music.