Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment play Purcell: Wren Tercentenary Festival

The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and St Stephen Walbrook join forces to present a three-part festival of music commemorating the church’s architect, Sir Christopher Wren.

St Stephen Walbrook was the first church exclusively designed by Sir Christopher Wren of the 52 that were built by him following the Great Fire of London in 1666. Its design became the blueprint for the great dome of St Paul's Cathedral, completed three decades later. Key to the major restoration of the church completed in 1987 is Henry Moore's marble altar placed centrally under the dome.

The festival offers a snapshot of musical life at the point of Wren’s death, three hundred years ago in 1723. This was the year of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and the year Bach was appointed cantor in Leipzig; it was also a time of rebirth for London following outbreaks of bubonic plague and the Great Fire, with Henry Purcell at its forefront.

On Thursday 20 April the OAE presents a 60 minute recital of music by Purcell, interspersed with atmospheric readings from the period. After bouts of bubonic plague and the Great Fire of London in 1666, Wren rebuilt the city whilst Purcell composed the music for its reviving theatre scene and newly opulent church and royal court.