Many Riches The Deller Consort performs Purcell - recommended by GEORGE BALCOMBE 'Alfred Deller is fantastic ...'

Defeated by Oliver Cromwell at the Battle of Worcester on 3 September 1651, King Charles II fled to France, leaving his three kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland as effectively a republic until the political turmoil following Cromwell's death in 1658 resulted in an invitation for Charles to return to Britain.

It was during this time of unrest that Henry Purcell was born in Westminster in 1659, and grew up, mostly in London, surrounded by his family. Purcell's father, a gentlemen of the Chapel Royal, had sung at Charles' coronation, and young Henry became a chorister at the same institution, and later assistant to the organ builder John Hingston and a copyist at Westminster Abbey. Purcell studied music with Henry Cooke, Pelham Humfrey and John Blow...

ALFRED DELLER

HENRY PURCELL

DIDO AND AENEAS

GEORGE MALCOLM

NEVILLE MARRINER

REGIS RECORDS