Monumental Music

This concert explores the exciting connection between Handel - one of England's most successful and well-loved musical immigrants - and the Montagu family, whose seat at Boughton House is nearby.

The Duke of Montagu also nurtured the African, Ignatius Sancho - born on a slave ship in 1729. Sancho as a small child impressed the Duke and, under his care, came to be a notable man of letters and well-known composer. Gainsborough's portrait of Sancho hangs in the National Portrait Gallery.

Fiori paint the picture of these two fascinating musicians who became a key part of English 18th-century cultural life.

Handel's splendid Roubiliac monument in Westminster Abbey is well known. Less widely known are the remarkable Roubiliac monuments in St Edmund's Church, where this concert takes place.

The concert is part of Music in Country Churches' 2023 Summer Season and will be preceded by a pre-concert talk by art historian Professor Phillip Lindley.