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There can be few ceremonies as spectacular as an English coronation. Over the centuries a rich liturgy and ceremonial rite have been adorned with an impressive musical repertoire. The four twentieth-century coronations (Edward VII in 1902, George V in 1911, George VI in 1937 and Elizabeth II in 1953) were lavish occasions. Both Roy Strong (Coronation, HarperCollins Publishers 2005) and Matthias Range (Music and Ceremonial at British Coronations, Cambridge University Press 2012) characterize these ceremonies as ‘the marriage of tradition and innovation’. Musically this is reflected in numerous commissioned pieces, alongside a desire to celebrate the glories of British music of the past. Westminster Abbey was closed for several months whilst carpenters erected huge galleries to accommodate the nearly 8,000 invited guests, as well as a large, raised podium under the crossing, known as the ‘Theatre’. Music and ceremony were slavishly rehearsed over many days. Large choirs of around 400 voices (including almost 200 choirboys) were assembled from all over the country, along with a few representatives of the foreign ‘Dominions’, and placed in special galleries around the choir stalls, led by three sub-conductors. Orchestras comprising the finest musicians in the land occupied the organ gallery above the screen, while massed military trumpets punctuated the ceremony with fanfares, and occasionally joined the concerted music. All four coronations are particularly well documented. Novello published vocal scores of all the music and every musician was listed in The Musical Times. Additionally, the BBC recorded the 1937 coronation for radio and that of 1953 for television. This recording is a selection of the very best music from all these ceremonies, assembled into a fine liturgical structure. For the ‘new’ music of the first half of the twentieth century, the aim has been to assimilate period style, including the use of instruments of the time, but it has not been felt appropriate to try to recreate mid-twentieth-century performance style for earlier music. Likewise, Gordon Jacob’s arrangements of Parry and Handel, deemed suitable in 1937 and 1953, have been abandoned in favour of Parry’s original orchestration and, for Handel, a more generic twenty-first-century ‘baroque’ style, including natural trumpets, albeit with a rather impressive romantic organ at the heart of the ensemble. The various renaissance and baroque anthems and motets included are not necessarily performed at the pitches nor in the voice configurations heard in the coronations; nor is any attempt made to emulate the clipped ecclesiastical spoken style of the period, so memorably preserved on recordings of 1937 and 1953.