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

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

Humfrey: O Lord my God, Blow: I used to be glad, Purcell: Three Elements upon a Floor, Hail vibrant Cecilia; Amy Carson, Alexander Likelihood, 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 hanging factor of evaluate and distinction in fantastically vivid performances. 

There’s a grim factor 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 just a few years, life should 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 Warfare 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 pal. Solely, Purcell died on the age of 36. 

Enjoying ‘what if’ we will surprise what English music would have been like if Purcell had lived. However take that additional and take into account an England the place Humfrey lived too, making English music the province of a trio of buddies and colleagues.

The most recent 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, vibrant Cecilia alongside substantial anthems by Humfrey and Blow. The ensemble was joined by soprano Amy Carson, countertenor Alexander Likelihood, 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, vibrant 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 had 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, but it surely 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 reasonably colored by Pepys’ remarkably catty remarks concerning 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 hanging impact and the opening dramatic declamation for bass soloist Nicolas Brooymans introduced out the tortured depth of the phrases. A duet for Alexander Likelihood 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 Likelihood and Gregory, however then Humfrey positioned the voices in dialogue to hanging impact: the sturdy bass solo contrasting with the extra plangent alto and tenor duet. When the refrain returned, it was hushed, making a hanging finish. There was one thing powerfully idiosyncratic concerning the piece, demonstrating Humfrey’s willingness to make use of what he had discovered of French and Italian music to carry 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 tip of his apprenticeship and eager to point out off. Right here we had three violins (Charlotte Spruit, Manami Mizumoto, Cristina Prats-Costa) in a consistently altering, vivid dialogue over continuo floor bass, the music exhibiting a outstanding sense of fantasy and the three enjoying with great 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 loss of life.

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 performed together with his sacred music. The choruses had been typically 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 Likelihood, Gregory and bass Christopher Webb. In a while within the piece, Likelihood was joined by countertenor Nathan Mercieca for a duet that includes their two elaborately intertwining traces over continuo. An extra trio for Likelihood, Gregory and Webb started lyrically however vigour returned after which Likelihood had a remarkably free solo that includes trumpets as nicely resulting in the resounding conclusion.

By 1692, the Musical Society’s annual odes to St Cecilia had been nicely established. Purcell had written Welcome all pleasures for them in 1683, however in 1692 his Hail, Vivid 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 pleased with continuo bringing in the remainder of the devices to make some extent. It’s value taking into account that the trumpets with out valves had been reasonably 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 giant in scale, with a powerful 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 Likelihood in splendidly rhapsodic kind, taking his time over the gildings. His alto voice has a wonderful edge to it which fits this music, typically written hovering between alto and excessive tenor. Soprano Amy Carson lastly bought her second with ‘Thou tun’st this world beneath’ that includes a pair of perky oboes in opposition to Carson’s admirably clear gildings. ‘With that chic celestial lay’ featured Brooymans in dialogue with the duet of Likelihood and Gregory. Rhapsodic and expansive, the music displayed the vivid number of Purcell’s strategy 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 Likelihood 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 in contrast to Wigmore Corridor so use of ladies aside (Purcell’s ensemble would have included boys) we might think about the primary efficiency might need been one thing akin to what we heard. Besides there was nothing academically discovered about this efficiency. Singers and gamers wore their studying calmly, and what came visiting was Bickett’s care to carry out most distinction in Purcell’s writing and the performer’s sheer enjoyment of the music.