Andrew Stewart looks forward to hearing music written for the crowning of George II
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Handel’s Coronation Anthems, performed at every coronation since that of George II three hundred years ago, stand as emblems of national pride. In June, Le Concert Spirituel and its charismatic director, Hervé Niquet, are set to add a French twist to these four works that helped shape Britain’s sense of self, when Wigmore Hall decamps to St James’s Spanish Place for an evening of royal music.
Handel would surely have jumped the queue to hear what an ace group of French musicians, complete with eight trumpets, massed oboes and bassoons, and two sets of timpani, might make of Zadok the Priest and its companion pieces. Niquet’s programme also includes Handel’s Dettingen Te Deum, written to celebrate Britain’s victory over France during the War of the Austrian Succession, and closes with a suitably grand version of God save the King, as it might have been performed in London during the Jacobite rising of 1745.
George II’s coronation, staged at Westminster Abbey in October 1727, amounted to a spectacular piece of political theatre. It welcomed the German-born king of England, Scotland and Northern Ireland with music specially written for the occasion by his fellow countryman, George Freideric Handel, only recently naturalised as a British subject. For their recording of the Coronation Anthems, released to rave reviews last August, Niquet and his band of singers and instrumentalists applied a dose of Versailles grandeur to music conceived for the English Chapel Royal. They replaced the sudden choral reveal in Zadok the Priest, an unchallenged trope of the work’s homegrown performance tradition, with a softer, more dignified entry that builds in intensity towards three mighty statements of ‘God save the King’. Above all, they excavated a rich seam of dramatic details all too often overlooked by British performers in the Coronation Anthems.
The prospect of musicians from republican France performing music for a Protestant king of England by a German composer in a Roman Catholic church clearly appeals to the internationalist sense of humour of Wigmore Hall’s director. 'We’re bringing a French ensemble to what was once a Spanish church to perform German music for a British monarch,' notes John Gilhooly with a smile. 'And Wigmore Hall is run by an Irish Catholic. It’s quite a mix!'
Hervé Niquet bristles at the idea that the Coronation Anthems are sacred choral pieces with instrumental accompaniment. 'There is no accompaniment! Each participant in the historical event [of the coronation] is a member of the celebrating nation. The instrumentalists have the same text as the singers. All are part of a gigantic mechanism where each has his place and must respect it or else the rhythmic pyramid that holds the edifice together will be destroyed in an instant.' Handel, he adds, built his anthems to introduce magic to the ancient liturgy of the coronation service. Likewise, the brilliance of his music amplified the glory of George’s victory at Dettingen, the last time a British monarch led an army in battle (albeit from a safe distance).
Will Charles III’s dozen coronation commissions enter the royal repertoire? Or will they, like William Knyvett’s anthem for the notoriously shambolic coronation of Queen Victoria or Thomas Attwood’s setting of I was glad for William IV, sink without trace? Andrew Lloyd Webber, the son of a church organist and composer of fine sacred pieces, was raised to the sound of Anglican anthems. He may well pull a rabbit from the ceremonial hat. And Judith Weir, Tarik O’Regan, Roderick Williams, Paul Mealor and Roxanna Panufnik have already brought fresh ideas to the sacred music scene. Each is capable of scoring a winner at Westminster Abbey. Or perhaps Sarah Class, Nigel Hess, Shirley J Thompson and Debbie Wiseman will rock Handel’s command of the coronation music heights with their versatile pens.
John Gilhooly was so taken by the dramatic force of Le Concert Spirituel’s Handel recording that he invited the period-instrument ensemble to bring its royal extravaganza to London. 'Hervé shared early edits before the recording sessions were over,' he recalls. 'I was thrilled by what I heard, but knew there was no way of fitting such a large group on stage at the Hall. I asked Hervé to look at St James’s, and we decided that the concert should be given there to celebrate the 70th anniversary of Elizabeth II’s coronation.' The Queen’s death cast doubt over proceedings, but the Spanish Place concert was confirmed following the announcement that her successor’s coronation would take place in May.
'Spanish Place has many connections to royalty,' notes Gilhooly. The Spanish embassy, he explains, was re-established on the site of today’s Wallace Collection following the restoration of Charles II, and St James’s Church was built as its chapel in the 1790s, after the loosening of legal restrictions on Roman Catholic worship. 'Our new king’s great-great-grandfather, Edward VII, became the first British monarch since James I to attend a Catholic Mass when he came to St James’s for the Requiem held there for Carlos I of Portugal.
'We’d already planned to present concerts at Spanish Place, but the pandemic put paid to that. Hervé’s Handel programme is a great way for us to reach out to the local community beyond Wigmore Street. We’re presenting it as a joint event with the Royal Philharmonic Society, which was under the patronage of the late Queen throughout her reign. And we’ll be back at Spanish Place on 19 June, when Solomon’s Knot will perform Bach’s St Matthew Passion.'
This article first appeared in the Spring 2023 edition of The Score Magazine - published up to three times a year and available to Friends of Wigmore Hall