What could a baroque composer possibly have in common with the Liverpudlian Fab Four? More than you think, it turns out.
What happens when Henry Purcell’s Restoration-era songs meet the Beatles’ studio-born pop? Niçois music lovers will find out on 17 September when Jérôme Corréas and Les Paladins place the two worlds in dialogue, revealing unexpected affinities in melody, harmony and vocal invention in the highly anticipated Beatles Baroque concert at the Sainte-Réparate cathedral.
Actually, the concept in itself is not entirely novel; several other groups have blended baroque and contemporary music. The musical collision of Henry Purcell, the “British Orpheus” of the seventeenth century, with the Fab Four, however, is designed to provoke a raised eyebrow. Yet the premise is less whimsical than it first appears. The concert strips familiar songs of their rock instrumentation and places them inside the baroque soundworld – not to prove a historical connection, but to reveal what the two repertoires have always shared. The two eras’ identities remain intact, yet each acquires a new contour. After all, the Beatles were not Purcellians in disguise.
Les Paladins and Jérôme Corréas
Jérôme Corréas founded Les Paladins in 2001, taking the ensemble’s name from Rameau’s final comédie-ballet. Trained as both a harpsichordist and a bass-baritone, he moves effortlessly between instrument, podium and vocal range. The group specialises in dramatic baroque repertoire from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, with a focus on French opera, cantatas and stage works where text and character sit at the centre.
Video via Les Paladins Jérôme Correas on YouTube
That background suits the Beatles Baroque concept, which treats both Purcell and The Beatles as living repertoire, shaped by the same concerns: clarity of line, balance of voices, and a close relationship between words and music. Instruments are reduced to the essentials: the organ sustains the harmony, the harpsichord supplies rhythmic definition, and the viol moves between melody and pizzicato. The double bass anchors the low end, reinforcing the bass line and giving the harpsichord’s rhythmic patterns extra weight. And the voices reproduce the close three-part writing that defines many of the Beatles’ most characteristic songs.
Purcell in Brief
London-born Henry Purcell (c. 1659–1695) remains the most significant English composer of the baroque era. In a life that ended all-too-soon at age thirty-six, he produced more than a hundred songs, sacred music, instrumental suites, court odes and theatre music. His gift lay in marrying text and music with unusual directness, shaping vocal lines to follow the natural rhythm and inflection of English speech while enriching them with harmonic colour and expressive suspension. In this concert, works like If Music Be the Food of Love and extracts from The Fairy Queen show a composer who could create atmosphere with economy and turn a short song into a miniature drama.
Programme Highlights
The concert alternates between Purcell and The Beatles, letting the listener hear shared gestures expressed in different musical languages.
Music for a While builds on a repeating bass figure over which the vocal line floats with increasing urgency. The effect depends on tension between stability and movement – a principle that underpins many Beatles songs built on looping harmonic patterns. Here the harpsichord and positive organ emphasise the rhythmic drive of the bass while the viol adds colour and flexibility above.
Because stands out for its intricate three-part vocal writing. The original recording treats the voices almost as a string trio, weaving independent lines into a single harmonic fabric. Les Paladins’ three singers bring that texture into the baroque world with clarity and precision, revealing the song’s structural elegance without losing its intimacy.
While My Guitar Gently Weeps takes the dialogue in a more theatrical direction. The viol assumes the expressive function of the electric guitar, translating the song’s plaintive bends and sighs into the grain of the early instrument. That transformation captures the spirit of the whole project: not imitation, but translation.
Music Across Time and Place
The Beatles’ historical record points to Bach, George Martin’s classical training and their broader appetite for new sounds as the main classical forces behind their work… anything but Purcell. But Beatles Baroque works on a different level, proposing that shared artistic instincts create bridges across centuries even without a direct line of influence.
Photo © RIVIERA BUZZ
And the baroque Sainte-Réparate cathedral, keeping vigil in Old Town Nice, is the perfect architectural link from past to present, in the same way as the music. Here, a song written in 1690s London and another composed in the 1960s can meet on the same stage and speak to the audience with equal immediacy. The instruments change and the languages may shift, but the impulse remains the same. A treat for the senses in every way.
VISITOR INFORMATION
Beatles Baroque: Quand Henry Purcell rencontre Les Beatles
Thursday, 17 September 2026, 8 pm | Cathédrale de Sainte-Réparate, Vieux Nice
Artists:
- Magali Léger – soprano
- Anne-Sophie Honoré – soprano
- Jean-François Lombard – tenor
- Olivia Gutherz – viol
- Franck Ratajczyk – bass
- Jérôme Corréas – harpsichord, organ, and conducting
Admission: €22, online ticket reservation (early booking strongly advised)
VENUE DETAILS
Cathédrale Sainte-Réparate de Nice
3, Place Rossetti
06300 Nice
Tel: +33 (0)6 14 62 57 87
Web: https://www.cathedrale-nice.fr/
PHOTO CREDITS
- All photos and images (including lead image) courtesy Les Paladins, unless otherwise credited
- Lead image Beatles Baroque © La Cité de la Voix
- Video as credited
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