The potential of music as a means of adding dignity and grandeur to state occasions has surely been lost on a few rulers in history. Portraits of antique kings and queens are more often admired (or the reverse) for their artistic qualities, as opposed to the enhancement in the status of their subjects they were originally intended to confer. Similarly, the appeal of ceremonial music from former ages is for modern listeners primarily aesthetic.
This 75-minute collection brings together music heard at a staggering variety of British royal occasions. ‘Zadok the Priest’ has been included in every coronation service held in that building since the coronation of King George II and Queen Caroline in Westminster Abbey on 11 October 1727. There is music for the coronation of King James II in 1685 (Purcell’s ‘I was glad’) and a later setting of the same verses by Parry for the coronation of Edward VII in Westminster Abbey on 9 August 1902.
Of course, there’s music for Queen Elizabeth II – Walton’s ‘Coronation Te Deum’ and ‘Orb and Sceptr’e for the coronation on 2 June 1953 and Bliss’s march ‘Welcome the Queen’, which commemorated the return of the monarch from her Commonwealth tour in 1954.
The British national anthem hardly needs an introduction. Benjamin Britten’s distinctive arrangement was first performed in Leeds on
7 October 1961 and has been heard countless times since.
GEORG FRIEDRICH HANDEL
Zadok the Priest
Choir of King’s College, Cambridge
English Chamber Orchestra
David Willcocks
HENRY PURCELL
Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary (excerpts)
Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge
Consort of Sackbuts from Symphoniae Sacrae
Stephen Cleobury, organ continuo
English Chamber Orchestra
George Guest
HENRY PURCELL
I was glad
Paul Esswood, alto
Ian Partridge, tenor
Stafford Dean, bass
John Scott, organ
Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge
George Guest
ARTHUR BLISS
Antiphonal Fanfare for Three Brass Choirs
Philip Jones Brass Ensemble
WILLIAM WALTON
Crown Imperial (A Coronation March) (arr. Herbert Murrill)
Simon Preston at the Organ of Westminster Abbey
HUBERT PARRY
I was glad
Choir of Westminster Abbey
Simon Preston, sub-organist
William McKie, organist & master of the choristers
ARNOLD BAX
Fanfare for the Wedding of Princess Elizabeth, 1947
Philip Jones Brass Ensemble
ARTHUR BLISS
Welcome the Queen
London Symphony Orchestra
Arthur Bliss
WILLIAM WALTON
Coronation Te Deum
Choirs of Salisbury, Winchester & Chichester Cathedrals
Ralph Downes, organ
London Philharmonic Choir & Orchestra
Georg Solti
EDWARD ELGAR
Imperial March, Op. 32 (arr. George C. Martin)
Carlo Curley at the organ of the Church of St. Mary Redcliff, Bristol
WILLIAM WALTON
Orb and Sceptre
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
David Hill
ANON.
God Save the Queen (arr. Benjamin Britten)
London Symphony Orchestra & Chorus
Benjamin Britten
Recording producers: Andrew Raeburn (1, 6); Michael Bremner (2, 5); Chris Hazell (3, 10, 11); Michael Woolcock (4, 7); Christopher Whelan (8); James Mallison (9)
Recording engineers: Gordon Parry (1); Stanley Goodall (2); Kenneth Wilkinson, Malcolm Hogg (3); James Lock, Tryggvi Tryggvason (4, 7); Kenneth Wilkinson (5); Kenneth Wilkinson, Ken Cress (8); Kenneth Wilkinson, James Lock (9); Simon Eadon (10, 11)
Recording locations: King’s College, Cambridge, UK, July 1963 (1); St. John’s College, Cambridge, UK, March 1972 (2), March 1975 (3); St. John’s, Smith Square, London, UK, February 1970 (4, 7); Westminster Abbey, London, UK, May 1965 (5), June 1963 (6); Walthamstow Assembly Hall, London, UK, May 1957 (8); Kingsway Hall, London, UK, March 1977 (9), December 1961 (12); Church of St. Mary Redcliffe, Bristol, UK, February 1991 (10); Winchester Cathedral, London, UK, May 1991 (11)