Choral Evensong broadcast Live from Salisbury Cathedral

4th February 2013

Categories: News

Choral Evensong will be broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 from Salisbury Cathedral at 3.30pm on Wednesday 6 February and celebrates the accession of Princess Elizabeth to the throne as Queen Elizabeth II on 6 February 1952. Much of the music sung and played in this special broadcast service was written for or performed at the Coronation service itself on 2 June 1953. It will be sung by the entire choir of boy and girl choristers and lay vicars directed by David Halls, with John Challenger as organist.

The introit Behold, O God, our defender, by Herbert Howells was written for the Coronation, as was William Walton’s Coronation Te Deum which is heard towards the end of the service. Other music at the Coronation which will be heard again in this special broadcast is Gibbons’ anthem O clap your hands together and Vaughan Williams’ arrangement of the hymn All people that on earth do dwell with its joyous fanfares on the organ. The service ends with John Challenger performing William Walton’s March: Orb and Sceptre on organ, also heard for the first time at the Coronation. The canticles are sung to the setting of Blair in B minor.

Those attending the service are asked to be in their seats by 3.10pm.

The broadcast is repeated on BBC Radio 3 on Sunday 10 February at 4pm.

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