1672: London Calling

30 December 1672, London. In a modest room above a tavern, a crowd gathers for something entirely new. For the price of a shilling, anyone can hear professional musicians perform. With John Banister’s concert, music escapes the court and church, and the age of the paying public begins.

This programme traces the rise of public concert life in Restoration London, as political upheaval, entrepreneurial musicians and a growing middle class reshape the way music is made and heard. From Puritan restrictions to the theatrical explosion under Charles II, and from taverns to coffee houses, a new musical culture emerges one driven not by patrons, but by audiences.

Gillian Moore is joined by a roster of distinguished historians for this major new BBC Radio 3 series, charting a course through 1000 years of classical music history. For the next eight programmes, historian Suzannah Lipscomb is in the chair, as together they explore the bold new sound worlds of the Middle Ages and Renaissance.

Producer: Chris Taylor
Academic Consultant: Professor Laura Tunbridge, University of Oxford
Story Consultant: Kate Leys
Series Editor for BBC Audio: Emma Harding
Key Changes theme tune composed by Joseph Howard and performed by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, conducted by Kerem Hasan.

John Banister: The Musick att the Bath
The Parley of Instruments
Peter Holman, director

John Playford (ed. Edmund Taylor): Daphne or The Shepherds
Bellot Ensemble

Alehouse Sessions Medley arr. Playford
Barokksolistene
Bjarte Eike

Henry Purcell: Welcome Song – Fly, bold rebellion (Z324)
Jeremy Budd, tenor
The Sixteen
Harry Christophers, conductor

Henry Purcell: Suite from Abdelazer
Bellot Ensemble

Anonymous: Diddle, diddle (Bawdy Ballad)

Matthew Locke: Suite No. 3 in D minor – Pavan
Bellot Ensemble

Benjamin Britten: The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Dalia Stasevska, conductor