Banqueting House in Whitehall is staging a classical DJ set beneath its restored Rubens ceiling, pairing music associated with the Jacobean and Carolean courts with the building’s visual splendour. The event uses the return of the ceiling to explore how 17th-century music reflected a politically tense, experimental and highly theatrical age.

The programme will move between lute songs, choral anthems and music first performed at Banqueting House about four centuries ago, including work linked to John Dowland and court masques. These lavish productions combined theatre, dance, music and elaborate design by Inigo Jones, promoted Stuart royal authority and were attended according to rank, but also acquired a reputation for drunken performers and unruly audiences. Musically, masques mixed brass, violins, voices, lutes and viols, with ambitious colouratura singing and lengthy dancing.