Composers: Britten, Purcell
Compositions: String Quartets, Three Divertimenti, String Fantasias
Performers: Doric String Quartet
Catalogue Number: Chandos CHAN201242 (2CD)

Prompted by homesickness while in self-imposed exile in America in the early 1940s and on the cusp of greatness with Peter Grimes, Benjamin Britten – a giant of 20th-century British music – became besotted by the music of Henry Purcell, a towering figure of 17th-century British music. It proved to be a telling meeting of musical minds across time and place, and the intriguing dialogue that resulted provides the focus for this finely played, incisively argued recital from the Doric String Quartet,...