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Purcell: Music for Queen Mary. Choir of King's College, Cambridge; Stephen Cleobury, Academy of Ancient Music. EMI 0946 3 44438 2.
The Choir of King's College, Cambridge, has been recording some wonderful music for many, many years, and this album, containing music written for Queen Mary between 1692 and 1695, joins the ranks of their very best work. Purcell's Ode for the Birthday of Queen Mary (1694) is one of the English composer's most-famous and well-loved pieces, so it appropriately leads off the program. But it is the funeral music (1694) for the Queen that stands out in my mind. It was performed for a ceremony several months after the Queen's death, and while the music is obviously solemn and austere, it is illuminating and heartfelt, too, with a startling "Drum Processional" that is almost uncanny. Ironically, Purcell himself would die the same year his Music for the Funeral of Queen ...
Source: HighBeam Research, Purcell: Music for Queen Mary.(Sound recording review)(Brief article)