Music by Purcell, Johnson, Lawes, Hume, Morley, Ravenscroft, Butler, Wilson and Boleyn.

The natural musicality of Shakespeare's writing along with the intense emotion in his plays continues to influence and inspire music. This programme explores the mid to late 17th Century settings of Shakespeare, a golden age of english composition. It heavily features Henry Purcell, a great theatre composer, perhaps unparalleled in setting the English language to music.