The King's Consort

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The King's Consort is a prominent British period music orchestra founded in 1980 by the English conductor and harpsichordist Robert King (b. Wombourne, 1960).^[1] The ensemble has an associated choral group, Choir of The King's Consort. Together, they have made over 90 recordings, largely on the Hyperion label, and have sold over 1,000,000 discs.^[2]

Their repertoire is primarily from the baroque and early classical period and includes recordings and live performances of opera, vocal and instrumental music. The ensemble's main performing base was in London's Wigmore Hall from 1987 until 2005. However, they now use the larger Cadogan Hall for performances that require both the orchestra and the choir. The King's Consort has performed several times at the BBC Proms including, The Coronation of King George II a special programme to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II (2002), Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610 (2004) and Michael Haydn's Requiem Mass (2006).

The King's Consort Choir appears on the sound tracks of several films, including The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Kingdom of Heaven, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and The Da Vinci Code.^[3]

Amongst their most recent awards is the 2006 BBC Music Magazine Choral Award for their recording of Michael Haydn's Requiem Mass. ^[4]

In June 2007, harpsichordist Matthew Halls took over as the group's Artistic Director from Robert King, who was jailed for sexually abusing minors. ^[5]. The group's manager is Viola Scheffel.

[edit] Selected Recordings

Handel: The Choice of Hercules (Susan Gritton, Robin Blaze, Alice Coote, Charles Daniels, The King's Consort, conductor Robert King) Hyperion 67298
Purcell: The Complete Odes and Welcome Songs Volumes 1-8 (Mark Kennedy, Eamonn O'Dwyer, James Goodman, Susan Gritton, James Bowman, Nigel Short, Rogers Covey-Crump, Charles Daniels, Michael George, Choir of New College Oxford, The King's Consort, conductor Robert King) Hyperion 44031/8
Vivaldi: The Complete Sacred Music (Lynton Atkinson, Susan Gritton, Catherine Denley, Lisa Milne, David Wilson-Johnson, Deborah York, James Bowman, Catrin Wyn-Davies, Charles Daniels, Neal Davies, Ann Murray, et al., The King's Consort, conductor Robert King) Hyperion 44171
Monteverdi: Sacred Music Volumes 1-4 (Rogers Covey-Crump, Charles Daniels, Peter Harvey, Rebecca Outram, Carolyn Sampson, James Gilchrist, et al., The King's Consort, conductor Robert King) Hyperion 67428, 67438, 67487, 67519
Bach: Mass in B Minor (Matthias Ritter, Manuel Mrasek, Matthias Schloderer, Maximilian Fraas, Anthony Rolfe Johnson, Michael George, Tölz Boys Choir, The King's Consort, conductor Robert King) Hyperion 22051

[edit] References

Footnotes

^ The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music, Oxford University Press, 1996
^ Erica Jeal, King has left the building, The Guardian, October 21, 2005. (accessed 3 October 2007)
^ IMDb (accessed 3 October 2007)
^ BBC Music Magazine (accessed 3 October 2007)
^ James Fenton, Facing the music, The Guardian, June 16, 2007 (accessed 3 October 2007)

Further references

Michael Church, 'We've found some real rarities', The Independent, February 24, 2006
Stephen Pettit, 'Intimate moments amid the Jubilee jollity', Evening Standard, Aug 14, 2002
Neil Fisher, Review of Prom 33: The King's Consort, The Times, August 9, 2006 (accessed 3 October 2007)

[edit] External links

Audio Interview with Robert King on BBC Radio 4, August 8, 2002 (accessed 3 October 2007)
Discography on Hyperion Records (accessed 3 October 2007)
Official web site of The King's Consort (accessed 3 October 2007)