The Early Music Show - 20/07/2008

Lucie Skeaping traces the schoolboy years of one of England's greatest composers, Henry Purcell, looking at how he came under the influence of several different composers and church musicians, who were to shape his musical future. Purcell's birth coincided with a hugely turbulent time in English political history and while there are no baptismal records, it is likely that he was born in a house just a few hundred yards from Westminster Abbey, the place were he would eventually make much of his career and reputation.