New Worlds | Travelogue

Join the 17th century British composer Nicholas Lanier on a voyage across Europe: a tale of elegance, innovation and simply ravishing sounds.

Meet Nicholas Lanier – lutenist, courtier and musical adventurer. In 1625 he travelled from the Court of Charles I to the Venice of Claudio Monteverdi, and British music was never the same again. Today, Laurence Cummings and the Academy of Ancient Music follow him on his journey, encountering heroes, lovers and geniuses along the way.

We’ll travel with Lanier from the corridors of the Stuart court to Antwerp, Milan and Venice. We’ll encounter the music of Sweelinck, Frescobaldi and Leonora Duarte, as well as Monteverdi himself. And through it all runs the lively personality and gloriously expressive music of Nicholas Lanier himself, the first Master of the King’s Music and possibly – just possibly – the greatest British composer you’ve never heard.