Thursday 28 February 2013

Sing Handel's Coronation Anthems - Have Fun - Support Michael Oliver Trust

George II by Thomas Hudson
George II by Thomas Hudson
On March 16 as part of the London Handel Festival, there is an event at Grosvenor Chapel supporting the Michael Oliver Trust. A scratch performance of Handel's Coronation Anthems with people being invited to join the choir on the day, rehearsing at the Grosvenor Chapel, South Audley Street, London, W1K 2PA with a performance in the evening, all directed by Lawrence Cummings. The soloists are Emily Vine, Marie Seidler, Oliver Johnson and Dominic Kraemer , all accompanied by the Little Baroque Company.

Rehearsals for the choir start at 11.00am, at the Grosvenor Chapel with the performance at 7pm. You can join the choir or simply go along for the evening performance, tickets are available from the London Handel Festival website. 

Handel, of course, wrote his Coronation Anthems in 1727 for the coronation of George II. Though the texts were traditional at coronations, Handel's selection was his own, personally picked from the coronation service of James II (in 1685) . Judging from the contemporary reactions, the coronation ceremony itself was somewhat chaotic; this seems to always be the case as Parry had similar problems with I was glad at the coronations of Edward VII and George V. But from the outset Handel's anthems were highly popular and Handel re-used music from them in Deborah and Esther

The Michael Oliver Trust was set up in memory of the late music critic Michael Oliver. The trust supports one of the prizes in the Handel Singing Competition, past winners have included Iestyn Davies and Andrew Kennedy.

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