Oeuvre: Coronation Anthem no. 4: Let thy hand be strengthened; HWV 259

The element of surprise in this seemingly standard Late Night Prom of Handel, Muffat, Bach and Purcell by the period-instrument orchestra Academy of Ancient Music was Leopold Stokowski.

At one point in the classic 1950 film All About Eve, the inimitable theatre critic Addison DeWitt speaks reverently of his art as critic: “I have lived in the theatre as a Trappist monk lives in his faith. I have no other world; no other life – and once in a great while, I experience that moment of revelation for which all true believers wait and pray.

How’s this for an original way of displaying one’s celebratory Union Flag? Strapped to the top of one’s contrabassoon! Apart from the absence of the National Anthem and horseracing, this concert gave us the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee weekend in a nutshell, encompassing the solemnity and sovereignty of all four of Handel’s Coronation Anthems, the exuberance of the Music for the Royal Firework