SURREY BACH FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA: Twenty-Four Violins

The festival's resident orchestra returns with another evening of baroque splendour, this year exploring the links between France and England in the 17th and 18th centuries. King Charles II returned in 1660 to England from his exile at the court in Paris, full of grand ideas about how to rejuvenate his personal music at his court in London. One of his main targets was his court orchestra, modelling them after the famous Vingt-quatre Violons du Roy in Paris for his own Twenty-Four Violins.

This concert will be conducted from the harpsichord by festival Artistic Director Matthew Brown, and feature music by Jean-Baptiste Lully, Francois Couperin, John Blow and Henry Purcell.