Music and Musicians at Westminster Abbey

Famous places and monuments all have a musical history whose richness and variety we do not always realise. For centuries their beauties have nourished the imagination of composers and performers who, in return, have often dedicated to them some of their finest works. Music is an immaterial heritage that the eye cannot see; it still resounds over the centuries in these musical centres and in the collective imagination. To share this patrimony and to bring it back to life in the surroundings that witnessed its birth - that is the object of this new series.

Westminster Abbey, the church at which all English monarchs have been crowned since 1066, is one of the great musical centres of the United Kingdom. Over the centuries, leading British organists, singers and composers have been closely associated with the abbey, which still plays a preponderant role in the musical and cultural life of the realm. From Orlando Gibbons to Benjamin Britten, this two-disc anthology presents a musical tour of this prestigious monument, its cloisters and the grandiose abbey church itself. A musical guide complete with plan to take you on a sumptuous pilgrimage through five centuries of creation.