King's Lynn Festivals Early Music Day: The Taste of a Nation

In this entertaining and virtuosic programme, the period instrument ensemble Spiritato and mezzo-soprano Ciara Hendrick transport us back to a decisive juncture in the history of English music. After the tragically early death of Henry Purcell in 1695, composers rushed to capture the spirit of the new century. The Tastes of the Nation is a vibrant picture of the changing fashions and astonishing success of Italian styles, genres and indeed musicians at the dawn of the 1700s.

Obadiah Shuttleworth was a virtuoso violinist, a close friend of Geminiani, and the first Englishman to write a concerto grosso; William Corbett, like Corelli a colleague of Handel, wrote his characterful Bizzarie Universali following his many travels in Italy; whilst the lyrical cantatas of Johann Pepusch were amongst the very first ‘English’ explorations of this typically Italian form.