With extraordinary timing, Ex Cathedra’s 2022-23 season opens with “King for a Day” (Sun 9 Oct), a programme of music for royal occasions on both sides of the English channel, composed by Handel and Lalande. The concert will now provide a moment of reflection on the life and service of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, with Lalande’s De profundis promising to be particularly poignant. A favourite composer of Louis XIV, Lalande’s Te Deum and two of Handel’s Coronation Anthems (Zadok the Priest and The King shall Rejoice) provide the pomp of such a bittersweet time, with the concert framed by The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba and Alec Roth’s companion piece Departure of the Queen of Sheba.

Support from the Continuo Foundation has helped to make this concert possible, plus two other concerts in Ex Cathedra’s 2022-23 season which feature period instruments: “Bach’s Christmas Oratorio” (Sun 4 Dec) and “Byrd’s Great” (Sun 5 Feb), a lavish celebration of Byrd’s 400th anniversary with His Majestys Sagbutts & Cornetts and the Linarol Consort of Renaissance Viols.