Monday music spot: Purcell's "Rondeau" from Abdelazer

I will always remember this piece as the closing credits music to "The First Churchills" which was a BBC costume drama broadcast in 1969 when I was a small boy, about the life of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, and his wife, Sarah Churchill.

I was far too young to fully appreciate much of the show at the time, but I do remember that I was fascinated by it and learned quite a few things (like what being "impeached" meant,) but this Purcell piece with which each episode ends was one of the most memorable.

The theme for the opening titles of each episode, by the way is the "Trumpet tune" from Act V of Henry Purcell's opera King Arthur. Watch this space!

It was also subsequently adapted both by Benjamin Britten (in "A young person's guide to the Orchestra") and by Andrew Lloyd Weber. But I particularly like the original, and this is an exceptionally good recording of a great performance by "Voices of Music" on original instruments.

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