Many coronations have come and gone in British history‚ but that of George II‚ which took place in Westminster Abbey in 1727‚ left its mark in the form of Handel’s four famous anthems‚ above all the one heard at every coronation since‚ Zadok the Priest. Yet Handel’s music was only part of the musical substance of the day. Other composers’ music was also heard‚ not to mention a host of fanfares‚ drum processions‚ bell peals and choreographed shouts‚ and it is to convey something of this rich pageantry that Robert King has assembled an impressive array of performers for this reconstruction. Much is speculation. Records tell us that‚ in addition to the Handel‚ there was a Te Deum by Gibbons‚ and that Child’s short anthem O Lord‚ grant the King a long life was sung at the West Door. For the rest‚ we tend to know which texts were sung‚ but not whose settings. But as Robert King points out‚ coronations have always mixed new music with old‚ and his highly plausible solution has been to raid the libraries of the Abbey and the Chapel Royal for likely­looking scores. Thus we get some of the music which Purcell and Blow wrote for James II’s coronation in 1685‚ responses by Tallis‚ and a rousing congregational hymn by John Farmer. Not everything is a masterpiece‚ of course‚ but the typically elegant and well­crafted Gibbons‚ and Blow’s majesterial God spake sometime in visions are certainly well worth hearing. King and his forces perform with suitably glad­hearted and lusty vigour. As might be expected in a recording of this kind‚ they score their biggest successes at moments of greatest grandiloquence‚ yet elsewhere they are often refreshingly light on their feet. There are also some nice atmospheric touches‚ including an appropriately distant acoustic for the Child‚ and‚ during the hymn‚ some apt (and one assumes deliberately unimproved) imprecision of ensemble from the Highgate Choral Society. Other factors do work against an authentic feel‚ however: the recording venue – St Jude’s‚ Hampstead – is not Westminster Abbey‚ and will not sound like it to anyone who has ever heard anything recorded or broadcast from there; and the use of a mixed choir instead of boys and men undoubtedly detracts from the occasion’s overall Anglican flavour. Nevertheless‚ this is fascinating stuff. Even if we do not know how accurate it is‚ the context it proposes for Handel’s famous music is thoroughly believable. And how striking it is that he should sound not only so modern compared to the others‚ but also so urbane‚ so lilting and lacking in pomposity. Clearly‚ he inhabited a more relaxed age.