100 Best Wedding Classics is another release in EMI’s highly successful 100 BEST series. This 6 CD set contains a collection of 100 popular classics that may be played at weddings, performed by some of the world’s finest artists. CD 1: Before the Ceremony - Gentle music to put the guests into a happy mood before the ceremony begins CD 2: Arrival Voluntaries - Music to accompany the wedding party as they enter the venue, including the famous Wedding March from Wagner’s Lohengrin CD 3: Vows and Prayers - Uplifting music to signify both the solemnity and the happiness of a wedding CD 4: Signing the Register - Reflective music to help the guests concentrate on the importance of the occasion CD 5: Communion - Mainly liturgical music suitable for the most serious part of the ceremony CD 6: Departure of the Bride and Groom - Joyous music to be played as the happy couple leave, including the Wedding March from A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Mendelssohn and Widor’s Toccata The music included in this set is suitable for every kind of wedding, from the grandest royal ceremonial occasion in a great cathedral with a full orchestra, choir and soloists, to the most intimate service with only an organ or harp, or perhaps just a CD player on which some of the tracks from this album can be played. The programme covers favourite pieces of liturgical music suitable for all types of religious wedding services, as well as secular works for non-religious occasions, including civil ceremonies. The works are suitable for all the various stages of a wedding, with a section devoted to liturgical music for services that include communion or the lighting of candles, although these pieces could also be used during other parts of the ceremony. A number of the works are heard here in special arrangements using an organ instead of an orchestra, sometimes alone and sometimes with a singer or trumpet soloist, in the way music is traditionally performed at most church weddings. The artists in the set include the organists Wayne Marshall, Sir Philip Ledger, Ian Tracey, Jane Parker-Smith, Peter Hurford and Noel Rawsthorne; the trumpeters Maurice André, Ole Edvard Antonsen and Alison Balsom; the singers Dame Janet Baker, Barbara Hendricks, and Alfie Boe; the choirs of King’s College, Cambridge, Liverpool Cathedral, Winchester Cathedral and the Hallé Choir, as well as many other distinguished performers.