Purcell: Complete Ayres for the Theatre cover

Purcell: Complete Ayres for the Theatre

Composer
Released

This three-disc set features all of the overtures, suites, and other incidental instrumental music (as well as instrumental versions of arias and songs) written for operas and other theater works by the great English baroque composer Henry Purcell. They include incidental music for such “semi-operas” as King Arthur, Dioclesian, and (of course) The Fairy Queen. Many of the brief pieces are written in dance rhythms, but some of the work is more serious and magisterial. Roy Goodman and the Parley of Instruments perform with all requisite nimbleness and grace.

Rick Anderson

Recommended by

Suggestions
Bach To Folk cover

Bach To Folk

Lodestar Trio
C.P.E. Bach: The Complete Solo Flute Sonatas cover

C.P.E. Bach: The Complete Solo Flute Sonatas

Jed Wentz, Job Ter Haar, Michael Borgstede
Messiah cover

Messiah

Christ Church Cathedral Choir, Oxford, Emma Kirkby, Judith Nelson, Paul Elliott, Carolyn Watkinson, Christopher Hogwood, David Thomas, Academy of Ancient Music
Johann Joseph Fux: Concentus Musico-instrumentalis I-VII  cover

Johann Joseph Fux: Concentus Musico-instrumentalis I-VII

Michaël Hell, Lucia Froihofer, Neue Hofkapelle Graz
Zelenka: Trio Sonatas cover

Zelenka: Trio Sonatas

Thomas Zehetmair, Klaus Thunemann, Heinz Holliger
Prism V cover

Prism V

Danish String Quartet
Lux Aeterna cover

Lux Aeterna

The Gesualdo Six, Owain Park