NO ELTON?

Notes from the Editor: Can the Coronation Concert Survive?

I’m going to cast back a few years (11, actually) to the 2012 London Olympics, which you’ll remember were the greatest in history.

For all the sporting brilliance on display, the moments I recall most vividly are from the opening ceremony, which has surely never been bettered. Admittedly, it helped that the Queen and James Bond parachuted into the stadium and that David Beckham piloted the Olympic torch to the venue by thrashing an illuminated powerboat along the Thames, but the ceremony had more to offer than that. It was an astonishing depiction of our nation’s history, featuring brilliant engineering, lighting, choreography and music.

A composition which I found particularly moving was performed during the lighting of the cauldron. It featured rhythmic drummers and vocal harmonies, and created a subtle but fitting backdrop to this most symbolic of sporting moments. When a lone choirboy sang the haunting final notes, you could have heard a pin drop.

I loved this piece so much that it was on my iTunes playlist for years. It’s called Caliban’s Dream, a reference to Shakespeare’s The Tempest, and was written by Rick Smith of the electronic group, Underworld. For those who haven’t heard of them, they’re best known for Born Slippy, a dance tune that featured in the film, Trainspotting. I don’t know what inspired Danny Boyle (Creative Director of the Olympic ceremony) to approach Smith and commission new music, but it was an inspired choice and no doubt as the years go by, the music will secure its legacy while bigger hits of the time are forgotten.

At the time, there was a great deal of secrecy surrounding the opening ceremony. Most of the attention focused instead on the closing ceremony concert. Would Noel and Liam Gallagher reunite? Would all the Spice Girls be there? In the end, Oasis plodded through Wonderwall, Ed Sheeran made his young fans think he’d penned a genuine classic by singing a Pink Floyd song, Queen inevitably played We Will Rock You with Freddie Mercury appearing as a hologram, The Who blasted out My Generation, and Eric Idle sang Always Look on the Bright Side of Life and kept the swearing in. It was fun. Yet despite the stars on show, it didn’t match the brilliance of a choirboy and the bloke who wrote the ‘Lager, Lager, Lager’ song.

Bringing us up to date, a similar scenario may be playing out as we approach the King’s Coronation. I have read many headlines about who will or will not be appearing at the Coronation Concert. Adele, The Spice Girls, Harry Styles and Ed Sheeran are among those who have, reputedly, turned down an invitation. I don’t know who is pushing the agenda and feels the occasion couldn’t pass without the biggest pop stars of the day performing a smattering of their hits, but I’m fairly confident that Charles III himself isn’t pacing the corridors of Buckingham Palace wondering why Elton won’t take his calls.

What you might not have read, however, is that a host of musical commissions are in the pipeline, all with Royal approval. Six orchestral commissions, five choral commissions and one organ commission are to be specially composed by world-renowned composers. These include a new Coronation Anthem by Andrew Lloyd Webber and a Coronation March by Patrick Doyle, who has written beautiful scores, including Potter Waltz in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Others involved include Nigel Hess (Ladies in Lavender) and Debbie Wiseman (The Glorious Garden).

Andrew Nethsingha, Master of the Choristers at Westminster Abbey, will be overseeing all musical arrangements during the service, and Sir Antonio Pappano, Music Director for the Royal Opera House, will be conducting the Coronation Orchestra. There will also be solo performers by singers including Sir Bryn Terfel, Pretty Yende, and Roderick Williams. Okay, they might not compete with the YouTube hits of Harry Styles, but they’re plenty capable of rising to the occasion. It’s worth remembering that music from the Queen’s early reign remains popular. They might not know who composed it, but is there anyone in the land who couldn’t hum Ronald Binge’s Elizabethan Serenade?

We’re often guilty of focusing on popularity rather than talent, which is something we have in abundance. My hope is that the Coronation will demonstrate this to a worldwide audience in the same way the Olympics did, and give us a sense of pride in our nation, Something that a pop concert in Hyde Park couldn’t really do.

Saying that, if they could get Lionel Richie…