Restoration sacred solo and choral music written for the Chapel Royal.

Rebuilding the royal music was one of King Charles II’s top priorities; just one month after the Restoration Henry Cooke was appointed master of the Chapel Royal. Lacking suitable candidates for the nine or ten vacancies, he personally travelled on horseback around the English choral foundations conscripting their ablest boys. His eye for talent was so formidable that he rapidly assembled the most brilliant group of choristers ever to sing together in one choir: of that first dozen boys, fully half were destined for professional prominence, and two for eminence.
Herein are two of Cooke’s finest anthems, newly unearthed and expertly edited, which have never before been recorded; these have been set alongside works by two of his pupils, Pelham Humfrey and John Blow.