VARIOUS ARTISTS – HM Queen Elizabeth II: The Commemorative Album

Decca (UMO) / Classics / Decca

£15.68

Format: 2 x CD
Catalogue No.: 4869277
Barcode: 0602448692771
Release Date: 02 Dec 2022
Genre: Classical

This brand new double album commemorates in music the life, times and passing of Queen Elizabeth II.

Disc One features music from key moments of the Queen’s life and reign: her wedding, coronation, and jubilees; hymns and anthems heard at annual national events, such as Remembrance Sunday and the Last Night of the Proms; melodies reflecting the close tie between the monarchy and the armed services; and finally, songs and tunes beloved by each country of the Union.

Disc Two features music heard during the Funeral and Committal Services of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on 19 September 2022, as well as three pieces from the preceding Services of Reflection, held in Edinburgh, Belfast and Cardiff. Music for royal occasions, celebratory as well as sombre, reflect at its heart a life of dedication and service.

Featuring performances drawn from the rich Decca catalogue, artists include King’s College Choir, Freddie De Tommaso, Sir Bryn Terfel, the BBC Concert Orchestra, Vera Lynn, The Military Wives Choir, the London Symphony Orchestra, The Sixteen, the Band of the Coldstream Guards, the Band of the Royal Marines, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and many more.

Two world premiere recordings are featured – a new setting of the ‘Pie Jesu’, to the melody of ‘Nimord’, from Elgar’s Enigma Variations, and ‘Who Shall Separate Us?’, a new anthem composed especially for the funeral of HM Queen Elizabeth.

In addition, there are a further five brand new recordings, made especially for this set: Handel’s triumphant ‘Zadok the Priest’ is heard in a new arrangement; the haunting ‘Kontakion for the Dead’, sung at the funerals of both the Duke of Edinburgh and The Queen; James MacMillan’s ‘Mitte manum tuam’, sung at the Service of Reflection at St Giles’s Cathedral, Edinburgh; Paul Mealor’s beautiful ‘A Welsh Prayer’, heard at the Llandaff Cathedral Service, attended by King Charles III and the Queen Consort; and finally, a new recording of ‘God Save The King’, featuring the accomplished young British tenor, Freddie De Tomasso.

TRACKLIST:
CD1 – LIFE AND TIMES (1:16:48)
1 Britten: The National Anthem (God Save The Queen)
2 Elgar: "Pomp and Circumstance," Op. 39: March, No. 4 in G
3 Bax: Fanfare for the Wedding of Princess Elizabeth
4 Goss: Praise, my soul, the King of Heaven
5 Traditional: The British Grenadiers
6 Elgar: Nimrod from Enigma Variations, Op. 36
(Arr. Farrington as "Pie Jesu" for Chorus and Orchestra)
7 Scottish Medley
8 Parry: Jerusalem
9 Walton: Crown Imperial: A Coronation March
10 Parry: I Was Glad
11 Handel: Zadok the Priest, HWV 258 - Arr. McPhee
12 Williams: Guide Me O Thou Great Redeemer
13 Elgar: Land of Hope and Glory - Arr. from
"Pomp and Circumstance" March No. 1
14 Anonymous: Danny Boy (Traditional)
Irish tune from County Derry - Arr. Chris Hazell
15 Wiseman: Elizabeth II
16 Walford Davies: R.A.F. March Past
17 Russell: A Life On The Ocean Wave
18 Holst: I Vow to Thee, my Country
19 Sing – Military Wives
20 We'll Meet Again – Vera Lynn

CD2 - FUNERAL, COMMITTALL AND REFLECTION SERVICES (1:17:43)
1 Croft: The Burial Service
2 Purcell: Thou Knowest, Lord, The Secrets Of Our Hearts
3 The Day Thou Gavest, Lord, Is Ended
4 The Lord's My Shepherd
5 Parry: My Soul There Is A Country
6 Vaughan Williams: O Taste and See (1952)
7 Love Divine, All Loves Excelling
8 MacMillan: Who Shall Separate Us?
9 J.S. Bach: Fantasia in C minor, BWV 562
10 Walford Davies: Psalm 121 - "I Will Lift Up Mine Eyes"
11 Anonymous: Kontakion of the Dead
12 Harris: Bring us, O Lord God
13 Christ Is Made The Sure Foundation
14 J.S. Bach: Praeludium
(Prelude and Fugue in C minor, BWV 546)
15 MacMillan: Mitte Manum Tuam
16 Stanford: Psalm 96 - "O Sing Unto The Lord A New Song"
17 Mealor: A Welsh Prayer
18 God Save The King (British National Anthem)