Hyperion: Handel — Musick for the Royal Fireworks & Four Coronation Anthems (The King's Consort, Robert King) — Audio CD

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Product Details:

• UPC: 034571163505
• Catalog Number: CDA66350
• Product Type: Audio CD
• Brand / Label: Hyperion
• Composer: George Frideric Handel (1685–1759)
• Performers: The King's Consort; Choir of New College, Oxford
• Directors: Robert King; Edward Higginbottom (choir)
• Release Year: 1990
• Genre: Classical
• Style: Baroque, choral & orchestral (period instruments)

Product Features

• Format: CD
• Discs: 1
• Total duration: 56′52
• Recording: DDD (digital)
• Period-instrument performance
• Booklet notes in English, French and German
• Made in: England
• Condition: Brand new, factory sealed

Overview

This is the recording that did something nobody had done before: Handel's Music for the Royal Fireworks in its original 1749 outdoor scoring — 24 oboes, 12 bassoons, 9 trumpets, 9 horns, and four sets of timpani. The sound is enormous, exactly as Handel first imagined it for the Green Park celebration of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, and on period instruments the effect is overwhelming in the best way.

Paired with it are the Four Coronation Anthems, written for the crowning of George II in Westminster Abbey in 1727 — among them "Zadok the Priest," sung at every British coronation since. The Choir of New College, Oxford brings the right blend of clarity and grandeur to the choral writing.

Robert King and The King's Consort built a reputation on exactly this kind of scholarship-meets-spectacle Handel. The press agreed: the Sunday Times called it a disc of "unashamed musical splendour," and the BBC Music Magazine guide pointed to it as a clear justification for period performance. Just under 57 minutes, digitally recorded.

Interesting Facts

• This was the first-ever recording of the Fireworks Music in Handel's original 1749 wind-and-percussion scoring, reconstructing the massed forces of the premiere.
• "Zadok the Priest" (HWV 258) has been performed at every British coronation since George II's in 1727, the work's first outing.
• The Fireworks Music was written to celebrate the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle and premiered in London's Green Park on 21 April 1749.
• The recreated percussion includes four pairs of timpani, among them a unique pair of extra-large "double drums," plus four side-drummers.
• The recording earned a place in the BBC Music Magazine "Top 1000 CDs" guide.

Track Listing

The Four Coronation Anthems (for the coronation of King George II, Westminster Abbey, 11 October 1727)

• Zadok the Priest, HWV 258 — 5:33
• Let thy hand be strengthened, HWV 259 — 7:51
• My heart is inditing, HWV 261 — 11:58
• The King shall rejoice, HWV 260 — 10:54

Music for the Royal Fireworks — 20:10 (First recording in the original 1749 scoring on period instruments)

Publishers

Released by Hyperion Records (London, England) in 1990, catalog number CDA66350. Made in England. Booklet notes in English, French and German.

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