Raised amidst the veritable explosion of culture that greeted the Restoration of the British monarchy in 1660, Henry Purcell stands as a colossus in English music. Hugely prolific, he wrote with equal skill and imagination for the church, t he court, the theatre, for his royal patrons and for small domestic forces: he produced over a hundred anthems, services and devotional songs of amazing originality, twenty-four magnificent Odes and Welcome Songs, an opera and four semi-operas, incidental music to over forty plays, more than a hundred secular songs and duets, over forty pieces of brilliantly inventive instrumental chamber music and more besides.