The Foundations of English Music
Under the direction of Sir RICHARD RUNCIMAN TERRY
Seventeenth-Century Instrumental
Music
Played by THE INTERNATIONAL STRING QUARTET :
Andre Mangeot (violin)
Walter Price (violin)
Eric Bray (viola)
Jack Shinebourne (violoncello Amongst the most beautiful of all the music written for strings, the Fantazias of Purcell stand out almost alone. It would be wrong to say that they have only recently been discovered, but it is very certain that their extreme beauty has only recently been appreciated. Much of this is due to the late Philip Heseltine , who, with the assistance of Andre Mangeot , re-edited them and introduced them to the publishers The fact that in the Fantazia upon one note, to be played on Friday, Purcell makes use of the ingenious device of reiterating one note throughout the work does not detract in the least, as it might do in the hands of a man of lesser genius, from its almost extravagant loveliness.