Spirited, stylish homage to Handel

The programme also drew on other aspects of Handel — the operatic and the devotional — with items for soprano solo and orchestra, plus an organ concerto dispatched with sparkling articulation by Alastair Ross.

It was the Arrival of the Queen of Sheba that raised the curtain on the celebrations, however, in a spirited rendering by The Sixteen, a pair of oboes chortling away in between tutti strings.

The first of the four anthems for the coronation of George II in 1727, Let thy Hand be Strengthened is also the most restrained, the only one to lack trumpets and drums. The latter feature in My Heart is Inditing but only in the final section. This anthem for the coronation of the queen is for the most part more intimate and Christophers drew expressively flowing lines from his excellent choir.

At the 1727 coronation, The King shall Rejoice came to grief in some way, according to a note jotted on his order of service by no less an authority than the Archbishop of Canterbury, No chance of that here: everything was done in great style.

Less predictable was Zadok the Priest. Perhaps endeavouring to recreate something of the striking impact this must have made the first time it was heard, Christophers spurned the traditional long opening crescendo. Instead he began slowly and quietly, maintaining that level right up to the choral entry, even daring a diminuendo immediately prior to it. Then the choir burst in with its full-throated acclamation. Uncanonical but in its way effective.  

The operatic element was provided by the soprano Carolyn Sampson in three numbers from Semele, actually an oratorio in name but sufficiently impious to be described by one contemporary as "a baudy [sic] opera".

In the aria Myself I shall Adore, the heroine, led on by the jealous wife of Jupiter, vainly admires her own beauty shortly before being destroyed by the very god who fancies her.

Suitably attired in a sleek white dress with black decoration, Sampson was equally coquettish in the extravagant decoration of her line.

Returning later in more sober garb for the supplicatory Salve Regina, she proved no less stylish and accomplished.

Information: www.bbc.co.uk/proms. To be broadcast on BBC Two, on Saturday at 8.45pm.

The Sixteen/Christophers
BBC Proms 2009
Royal Albert Hall