Henry Purcell established himself as the leading English composer of the later seventeenth century. At the age of twenty he was appointed organist of Westminster Abbey, and held further court employment under Charles II and James II, continuing under William and Mary. While much of the music for Thomas Shadwell’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Tempest has been generally ascribed to Purcell, it is now widely supposed that only one of the songs is his. There are no doubts, however, about the other works recorded here, the splendid Chacony, the fine trumpet writing and the setting of Cowley’s If ever I riches did desire.