In his sermon at St Paul’s Cathedral on the occasion of the United Guilds’ Service of the City of London on March 24, the Dean of Westminster, Dr David Hoyle, gave the congregation an assurance that the forthcoming Coronation would witness a spectacle of colour unlike many of us had witnessed hitherto. Now, under the assured direction of Andrew Nethsingha, recently appointed Organist and Master of the Choiristers at Wesminster Abbey, and his host of performers, we have this magnificent aural document of a great historic occasion, a touchstone to the hardworking, dedicated professional musicians of this realm, who have given their all to this special event. The Westminster Abbey Choir was augmented by the girl choiristers from the Chapel Choir of the Methodist College, Belfast, and Truro Cathedral Choir, adding their voices to the soaring descants of traditional hymns and the eight newly composed anthems.

See also:

● The Coronation: Military Musicians

● The Coronation: Royal Music Through Time

● The Coronation: Meeting the Composers Behind the Music

There were a number of musical and textual changes to the Order of Service to reflect our times as King Charles surveys a country that has little in common with the one that his mother inherited in 1952. Her Coronation as Queen Elizabeth in 1953 was recorded by HMV, which produced three striking LP records containing the entire ceremony with an introductory talk by the Archbishop of Canterbury and a commentary by John Snagge (7/53).

Decca has produced a double CD of the Coronation that includes the exit procession – to marchlike strains – of the King and the Queen from the Abbey, mingled with the sound of the crowd and horses’ hooves on rain-washed pavements. The Music Before The Service comprises six newly minted compositions including Brighter Visions Shine Afar by Judith Weir, the current Master of the King’s Music, and Voices of the World, Ian Farrington’s zany valentine to the Commonwealth, performed with gusto by the Abbey’s Assistant Organist, Matthew Jorysz, as though resident at Blackpool Tower.

The service commences with a majestic performance of I was glad by Hubert Parry, a favourite composer of the monarch’s, written for the coronation of his great-great-grandfather King Edward VII in 1901. Hearing it in the context for which it was intended adds that extra frisson to the performance, for who could not be thrilled by the cries of ‘Vivat Regina Camilla!, Vivat Rex Carolus!’, sung full-throttle by the King’s Scholars of Westminster School? Handel’s Zadok the Priest is similarly charged: the Old Testament anointing of Solomon would have been sung in Latin at the first English Coronation of King Edgar at Bath in 973AD.

Two newly composed settings stand out for their power and beauty. The Coronation Kyrie, a striking piece of writing from the pen of Paul Mealor, is sung in Welsh by Bryn Terfel. The singer seized the moment, offering an interpretation of both Wagnerian depth and nuanced gentleness. The Agnus Dei by Tarik O’Regan, an ethereal and exquisitely worked setting, is worthy to stand alongside O taste and see, the communion anthem composed by Vaughan Williams for the 1953 Coronation. Roxanna Panufnik’s celestial setting of the Sanctus, with a nod to Fauré in the rippling accompaniment, is interspersed with splashes of colour from the king of instruments, played by Peter Holder, Westminster’s sub-organist.

A lighter note is struck by Debbie Wiseman’s Alleluia, a gently swung anthem in 6/8, and its companion piece for the Ascension Choir, that dapper choral group always in perfect harmony. Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Make a joyful noise does just that, its introductory five-note hook guaranteed to hang around your house for 24 hours!

Trumpeters from the Royal Air Force appear eight times in the course of the service. This brilliantly disciplined group under Wing Commander Piers Morrell step to the fore in The Recognition, playing a set of glittering Fanfares newly composed by Christopher Robinson. The fifth Fanfare, marking the moment of Homage, culminates in a spectacular cymbal crash, following some colourful interplay between players. They make their presence felt too in a thrilling account of the Walton’s Te Deum, an extraordinary feat of coordination between Nethsingha in the chancel and Pappano in the organ screen. John Rutter had the unenviable task on more than one occasion of scaling back the original orchestration for Pappano’s 30-piece orchestra, something he carried out with considerable skill.

Music by Purcell and Gibbons, both organists at Westminster Abbey, and Latin rites from Tallis and his pupil Byrd – a Catholic who served under the Protestant Queen Elizabeth I – are reminders of where we’ve come from, with King Charles declaring ‘I am a faithful Protestant’ and, for the first time at a coronation, pledging to serve every faith and belief. His words are all captured here.

Recording producer Anna Barry and her team, including the supportive BBC, must have scaled unprecedented heights to bring off this occasion. The final mix is not one that a listener to Radio 3’s Choral Evensong might recognise, for the laudable aim has been to reach for clarity in all things, paring back the reverberation of the Abbey in favour of a close-up sound picture, with the transitions between speech and music edited to a fine point. Taken as a souvenir of a ritual of a unique inaugural installation that has survived for over a millennium, this Decca recording will reap many rewards. 

Album details

‘The Coronation of Their Majesties King Charles III and Queen Camilla’

The music and liturgy from the service

Westminster Abbey Choir / Andrew Nethsingha; Coronation Choir and Orchestra / Sir Antonio Pappano and others

Decca 

Recorded live at Westminster Abbey, May 6, 2023

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