80. Celebratory music for a Coronation.

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Welcome back to Perfect Pitch with Nick Healy Hutchinson and his fresh approach to the world of classical music. Whether you're an expert or a beginner, old or young, Perfect Pitch has something for everyone.

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So there you have it. My new intro voice. I'm not going to tell you who it is until next week to see if you can get it. I'll just say for now that I'm hugely flattered that she has agreed to do it. In the UK this weekend, we have our first coronation for almost exactly 70 years. Whether you're a supporter of the institution of monarchy or not, there is still plenty of music we can enjoy in that context. It's not a bad acknowledgement, but you have been voluntarily anglicised to be invited by the king to write your first form of commission. That's what was required of handle by George II nearly 300 years ago for his coronation. In the previous podcast, we listened to his most famous anthem, Zedot the Priest, performed at every coronation since its first outing. But there were actually four anthems performed on that occasion. So let's start today by listening to the last of them. My heart is indicting. It's a very charming piece in four parts, deliberately more gentle than the stripes of Zedot the Priest, because it was designed specifically to follow the coronation of George's consort, Queen Caroline. Even if Handel couldn't resist a truly triumphant conclusion and the brass get a proper say in the end. It's performed here by Soretic Fire conducted by Patrick Dupree quigley.

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I speak, I speak, which I have been my heart.

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So it seems entirely appropriate to follow what we've just heard with some music by that man's hand. Beethoven only wrote one opera, Fidelia. The overture gave him particular trouble, so much so that it took him four attempts. The first three went under the name of Leonora, simply because he intended to call the opera by that name, rather than the disguised name she assumed of Fidelia. It's the fourth, altogether much lighter, briefer, and more optimistic, which is almost always used today. The overture is played here by the Vienna Philomena Corpus conducted by Claudio Alardous. The King has selected an anthem by the Tudor composer Thomas Wilkes for his coronation. Wilkes was known primarily for his church and madrigal music. Here's a jolly example: Sing We at Pleasure, performed by the Purcell Concert of Singers, conducted by Patrick Dupree Quigley. Yes, it's definitely got a medieval feel to it. But if I hadn't told you, would you really think it was written 400 years ago?

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Oh shit, I saw the We obviously have to finish with something quintessentially British, and I can't think of anything more appropriate today than Crown Imperial by William Walton.

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It was originally commissioned for the coronation of Edward VIII, but that of course never happened. So it got its first royal airing at the coronation of another George, this time the sixth in 1937. Not many people listening to this will have heard it of the Queen's coronation, but there's a fair chance you'll be familiar with it if you watch the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton in 2011. This isn't typically English music in the style of say Vaughan Williams, but much more in the pump school we associate with Edward Elgar. Elgar was the ultimate establishment composer. So if you're wondering why he wasn't asked to do the job, his death three years earlier had made him unavailable. Crown Imperial matches us out today with another philomonic orchestra conducted by Roger Lorrington.

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