March: Crown Imperial

Sir William Walton’s Crown Imperial was commissioned by the BBC for the Coronation of Edward VIII but, after his dramatic abdication, it actually served its ceremonial purpose at the Coronation of his younger brother, George VI, in Westminster Abbey on 12 May 1937. If the British public needed proof of Walton’s genius - and he was regarded with some suspicion at the time - here it was. Once a dangerous modernist, he was now the new Elgar. The brilliance of the opening Allegro reale march and the melodic inspiration of the hymn-like section that alternates with it are both of a quality to stand comparison with anything in the Pomp and Circumstance marches he took as his model