'A magnificent sound, really Brahmsian orchestration... This is a simple ‘must have'... What a great way to launch a new label' CD Review, BBC Radio 3
'The full orchestral panoply of instruments... relish these fine examples of it and the stirring manner in which they are performed' The Daily Telegraph
'The King's Consort have delivered an undisputed spectacular... Radiant, Brahmsian exultations of faith, with unmistakable hints of Wagner witnessed in the thrill of the orchestral language... It's a magnificent start for a potentially exciting new label' The Scotsman 
Carolyn Sampson -
soprano
David Wilson -
Johnson bass
Choir of The King's Consort
The King's Consort
Robert King -
conductor
This album comprises two works written for the Coronation of King George V in 1911, Parry's ‘I was glad' and the ‘Coronation Te Deum', four magnificent settings of the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis by Charles Villiers Stanford (recorded for the first time on period instruments in the composer's original orchestrations), Parry's sumptuous double-choir setting of ‘Blest pair of Sirens" and his famous 'Jerusalem' in Edward Elgar's colourful orchestration of 1922. The programme represents a double celebration: The King's Consort's hundredth album and the launch of its new label, VIVAT.
The recording uses period instruments, gathering together players from fifteen nations. Great attention has been paid even to the smallest details of instrumental set-up: all the string players use gut strings, and much care has been applied to the large woodwind section, even down to sourcing an original bass clarinet from 1900. For the brass, Crispian Steele-Perkins has located six English trumpets from the end of the nineteenth century, and the horn, trombone and tuba players also play instruments of the period. For the final, vital colour in the orchestral palette, the ‘Father Willis' organ in Hereford Cathedral, perfect in sound and period, was transported for three days, thanks to state-of-the-art digital technology, into this London recording!