Henry Purcell (1659-1695) occupies a unique position in English Baroque music. Although best known for his vocal and theatrical works, including Dido and Aeneas, his odes for the royal court and numerous anthems, Purcell was also an accomplished keyboard player and composer. His surviving music for harpsichord, virginals and organ offers valuable insight into the development of English keyboard music in the late seventeenth century.

Compared with the output of some of his continental contemporaries, Purcell's surviving keyboard music is relatively modest in quantity but remarkably varied in character. His harpsichord and virginal pieces include suites, pavans, galliards, grounds, voluntaries and other short compositions. They combine established English keyboard traditions with the expressive language of the emerging Baroque. His suites incorporate elements of the French dance tradition, while his distinctive harmonic language gives these works a strongly individual character.

Among the most striking pieces are the grounds, in which a repeating bass pattern provides the foundation for increasingly inventive variations. Purcell's mastery of the ground bass is evident throughout his vocal and instrumental music, and his keyboard works reveal the same fascination with harmonic transformation, chromaticism and contrapuntal invention. His writing can be elegant and restrained, yet also surprisingly adventurous, with unexpected harmonic turns and expressive dissonances.

Purcell's organ music reflects another important aspect of his musical world. Appointed organist of Westminster Abbey in 1679, a position he held until his death, he was closely involved in the musical life of one of England's most important ecclesiastical institutions. His surviving organ works include voluntaries, preludes and verse pieces, demonstrating his command of counterpoint and his sensitivity to the distinctive sonorities of the English organ.

Taken as a whole, Purcell's keyboard music offers a fascinating portrait of a composer working at a moment of transition. English traditions inherited from earlier masters such as William Byrd and Orlando Gibbons, alongside the work of his contemporary John Blow, meet French dance forms, Italianate melodic ideas and the developing language of the Baroque.

Performed by Pieter-Jan Belder on harpsichord and organ. An internationally acclaimed specialist in historical keyboard instruments, Belder has built an extensive recording catalogue, including acclaimed complete recordings of the keyboard works of composers such as Domenico Scarlatti, Jean-Philippe Rameau and Antonio Soler.