• The Coronation of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II (Warner Classics) on disc may be of distinctly occasional interest. But whatever your republican tendencies, don’t rule out the historic interest of this remastering of the ceremony at Westminster Abbey on 2 June 1953. It captures a moment in mid-20th-century musical life, featuring composers ignored for much of the time since and now back in the fray: George Dyson, Herbert Howells, Ernest Bullock, Gordon Jacob, as well as William Walton and Ralph Vaughan Williams.
The recording may sound woolly, the quavery sung prayers a bit all-gas-and-gaiters by today’s standards, but once the opening bars of Handel’s Coronation anthem Zadok the Priest explodes into life, followed by shouts of “God save the Queen” and trumpet fanfares, who can fail to be stirred. OK there are always a few, but I challenge you.
• In a world-premiere recording, London Early Opera has brought Handel’s “compilation” opera Caio Fabbricio (Signum Classics) back to public attention, conducted and reconstructed by Bridget Cunningham. The work, about an incorruptible Roman ambassador instructed to make peace between the Romans and the Greeks, was first performed in 1733, based on an earlier opera by Johann Adolf Hasse, with additional arias by leading composers of the day and new recitatives by Handel: hence the description “pasticcio”.
As a listener, you can only be sure who has written what by following text and track listing in the comprehensive booklet. Easier to enjoy this outpouring of vigorously performed baroque music, with seven of the finest young singers working in the early opera sphere: Fleur Barron, Morgan Pearse, Miriam Allan, Anna Gorbachyova-Ogilvie, Hannah Poulsom, Helen Charlston and Jess Dandy. The orchestral playing is strong and agile, directed by Cunningham from the harpsichord.
• Viola player Lawrence Power, ever keen to extend the way we experience music, has worked with the production company Âme and composer-pianist Thomas Adès to make a visual album, Dark Pastoral (directed by Jessie Rodger), of three Berceuses for viola and piano by Adès. Beautifully filmed and played.
