Debbie Wiseman, Helen Mirren, Damian Lewis – The Music Of Kings & Queens (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:06:28 minutes | 1,05 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Decca (UMO) (Classics)
The Music of Kings & Queens was released in 2021 to mark the 95th birthday of Queen Elizabeth II, honored with both a fanfare at the beginning and a place in the cavalcade of English monarchs at the end. The list dates back to William I, William the Conqueror, and each monarch gets a spoken introduction, alternating between Helen Mirren and Damian Lewis, together with a short musical selection by composer Debbie Wiseman. It would be too much to call these portraits, for they relate only in the most general way to the personalities of the kings and queens involved. Wiseman is a film and television composer, and the music is meant to evoke the monarchy in a general way. This it does quite successfully and without mawkishness, and the commercial success of this album among a British public always willing to soak up celebrations of the monarchs is no surprise. The texts are by Simon Brooks-Ward CVO OBE TD VR, a military officer best known as an organizer of equestrian events. They contain a corker of a dangling modifier (“Brought up in as normal an environment as was possible for a member of the royal family, dogs and ponies featured heavily in her life …”) but could serve as an instant refresher in some highlights of English history. One might note that the National Symphony Orchestra that furnishes the accompaniment is not the Washington-based group but a London orchestra specializing in musical theater. An album that will be heard throughout Elizabeth’s 95th year and beyond. – James Manheim
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