Purcell: The Complete Anthems and Services, vol. 5.

It was George Bernard Shaw who, when writing of the Lowes brothers, placed their achievement in a broad 17th-century context:

... it was very charming music, inferior to that of Purcell and Handel only because Purcell and Handel happened to be much abler than the Lawes brothers, and not at all on account of any inferiority of the art of music in their time--rather the contrary perhaps.

In other words, the music of Purcell's contemporaries such as John Blow--at one time his teacher, and a lifelong colleague--includes some excellent stuff, and should not be passed over because Purcell's music is perceived as being greater. Passed over it has been, however, and …