Music for the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth

The coronation of Queen Elizabeth in 1953 was accompanied and celebrated by much splendid music, including the choral works heard on this LP, recorded to mark the Queen's Silver Jubilee in 1977.

Performing are the Exultate Singers under Garrett O'Brien, an ensemble that made several LPs from 1977-80, including music of Vaughan Williams for RCA UK and Finzi for Hyperion. From what I have read, the ensemble was based at Southwark Cathedral, where O'Brien was assistant organist.

The organist here was Timothy Farrell, who was at the Chapel Royal at St. James Palace, and was previously sub-organist at Westminster Abbey. Farrell was for many years organist of the Liberal Jewish Synagogue, St John's Wood, and performed there as recently as last year.

The ceremony in Westminster Abbey

Most of the composers represented on the LP were living at the time of the coronation - Herbert Howells, Sir William Harris, Sir George Dyson, Healey Willan, Ralph Vaughan Williams, William Walton and Gordon Jacob. The works by Howells ("Behold, O God Our Defender"), Harris ("Let My Prayer Come Up"), Dyson ("Confortare"), Willan ("O Lord, Our Governour") and Walton ("We Praise Thee, O God") were written for the ceremony.

Stanley Webb praised the LP in The Gramophone, saying that the ensemble sings "with the fervent intensity of a concert hall performance rather than the reverent dedication of a cathedral choir: they have no difficulty filling the great spaces of Westminster Cathedral with splendid sound." I have to disagree that the group fills the Cathedral with sound. It sounds like quite a small group.

Webb also praised organist Timothy Farrell, writing that he "is a sensitive accompanist throughout and his inspired playing heightens the drama of the Walton Te Deum." (The Walton is indeed dramatic; even O'Brien's sleeve note calls it "vehement.")

As recorded the choral sound lacked presence, which I remember noting when I bought the record nearly 40 years ago. Today's audio tools give me the ability to address the issue to an extent, along with fixing some pitch problems. The result is pleasing, I think - although the singers still seem backwards compared to the dramatic organ sound.

The record came out on Vista, a small label that issued quite a number of LPs of organ, choral and other music in the 1970s, until the early death of its founder, Michael Smythe, who produced this LP.