Henry Purcell: an Orpheus Brittanicus for today

in association with the Worshipful Company of Musicians

In this inaugural Purcell Lecture, given in Stationers’ Hall where Henry Purcell’s famous Ode to St Cecilia was first heard in 1692, Sir Nicholas Kenyon celebrates the genius of one of our greatest composers and considers what lessons his music has for us today.

Kenyon will explore the impact of Purcell throughout the years of the early music revival, referencing the rich archival holdings of the Stationers Company, exploring key figures in the Purcell revival from Arnold Dolmetsch and Peter Warlock to Alfred Deller, Benjamin Britten, Imogen Holst and Michael Tippett. In the recent revival of period-instrument performance, leading figures such as Christopher Hogwood and William Christie have highlighted Purcell in their repertory, and his music continues to be heard in many different guises. 

Purcell and his widespread influence on contemporary composers provides an inspiring hope for the future of British music. As Orpheus Brittanicus, he has represented many of the things we regard as ‘Englishness' in music, but it can be argued that his truly unique quality is as a cosmopolitan composer who took the best of continental practice and made it his own. 

Purcell’s enduring importance in the story of British music is a salutary warning to us in the face of many challenges, economic and educational, to cultivate and sustain music-making in our lives, providing a beacon of hope for the future of British music and music-making. 

Sir Nicholas Kenyon was Controller of BBC Radio 3 (1992-8), Director of the BBC Proms (1996-2007), and Managing Director of the Barbican Centre (2007-21). He has been a music critic for The New Yorker, The Times and The Observer, and is now Chief Opera Critic of The Telegraph. He edited the journal Early Music (1983-92) and edited the influential volume Authenticity and Early Music. He has written books on Bach, Mozart, Simon Rattle and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and most recently published The Life of Music. He is now researching the history of the early music revival as a Distinguished Affiliate Scholar of Pembroke College Cambridge.

We are delighted that we will also have some music performed throughout the evening.

Award winning Swedish guitarist and theorbist Jonatan Bougt is a graduate of the Royal College of Music (RCM), London, where he studied with Jakob Lindberg, Carlos Bonell and Chris Stell as an RCM Scholar supported by the Musician’s Company Lambert Studentship. He completed his Master of Historical Performance degree with Distinction in 2019 and holds a First Class Bachelor of Music (Honours) degree, graduating in 2017. During his studies, he was the 1st Prize winner of the RCM Guitar Prize (2017) and the RCM Historical Performance Competition (2019), receiving The Century Fund Prize and The Richard III Prize. In 2021, Jonatan was awarded the 1st Prize in the NORDEM 2020 EAR-ly competition, for his "graceful playing, stage presence that leads the listener to the music" and for his "elegant and natural way of playing as well as understanding of style and musical rhetoric". 

British tenor Rory Carver has a reputation for strongly musical and dramatic performances of operatic, oratorio, and art song repertoire from the early baroque to the present day. He has a particular passion for performing the chamber repertoire with small forces, having featured in one-to-a-part ensemble and solo roles for a wide variety of the UK and Europe’s best-known groups including Les Arts Florissants, Vox Luminis, Early Opera Company, the English Concert, the Academy of Ancient Music, Solomon’s Knot, La Nuova Musica, and I Fagiolini; often singing the high-lying tenor lines of the English and French baroque.

Since performing the title role in Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo at the Brighton Early Music Festival while still a student at the Royal College of Music, Rory has gained a wealth of experience in the song and operatic repertoire of the 17th Century. In addition to operatic performances, Rory toured a series of intimate 17th century song programmes to small venues around the UK and Europe with gambist Harry Buckoke and theorbist Jonatan Bougt. Rory has been performing as part of Vox Luminis’ regular team for their touring semi-staged performances of Purcell’s King Arthur and Fairy Queen, most recently at Wigmore Hall and, in 2025, a return to Teatro Real.

This inaugural Purcell Lecture will be a landmark occasion for the Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers, in association with the Worshipful Company of Musicians, generously supported by Roger Mayhew.

Schedule:
6.30 PM Drinks reception
7.00 PM Welcome and Music
7.20 PM Sir Nicholas Kenyon Lecture
8.00 PM Music
8.10 PM Drinks Reception and Sandwiches

9.30 PM Event Ends

Ticket Price:
£30