Oh, sure! It was a ceremonial civic event, where a choir and organ provided music while the civic parties were waiting for the King to arrive, and later when the King performed various ceremonial duties. The music at royal occasions like these is usually sung by the King’s own musicians, but local musicians are deliberately brought in when the King is travelling outside the capital (to encourage arts throughout the country, I expect). And he seems to be doing a fair amount of travelling at the moment!
As is often the case for big civic ceremonies in my country, the vast majority of the music was sacred. And there was quite a lot of it; there were over 20 musical items in all! Quite a few well-known composers were featured, including Handel, Howells, Franck, Stanford, Mendelssohn, etc.. I probably shouldn’t go into too many specifics, to avoid identifying the particular event too closely, but that should give you a rough idea!
Having said that, though, we did sing the famous work below. It’s something that’s traditionally performed at royal occasions, and appears really quite frequently. I think the King gets it multiple times a week sometimes, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s quite bored of it by now!
I hunted down this particular recording because it has organ accompaniment, as opposed to an orchestra, which matches the performance I was involved in. But I also happen to know a few of the performers who worked on this disk, and they reliably inform me that this track was recorded as a single, continuous take. That’s pretty rare!
(Anyone who doesn’t know this piece, be sure to listen until at least 1:30 – the first choral opening in this work is especially dramatic, and is worth experiencing!)