PURCELL From hardy climes and dangerous toils of war
LOCKE Fantasia Suite No 2 in D minor
LOCKE Descende caleo cincta sororibus ‘The Oxford Ode’
PURCELL Fantasia No 8 in Four Parts
PURCELL Love’s goddess sure was blind

Odes for special occasions frame this opening programme, from Purcell’s ‘From hardy climes and dangerous toils of war’, performed at the wedding of Prince George of Denmark and Princess Anne, to one of his finest and most wistfully beautiful odes, ‘Love’s goddess sure was blind’, written in 1692 for the birthday of Queen Mary. In between, we hear Locke’s ‘The Oxford Ode’, commissioned in 1672 for the annual degree ceremony at Oxford’s Sheldonian Theatre. These three odes are interspersed with fantasias for viol consort by Purcell and Locke that represent the pinnacle of a two-century-long musical tradition in England.