Santu De Silva wrote about Robert King:

>this i sthe King Consort fellow, I believe.  Wasn't he the one who did the
>epic recording (Hyperion) of the Royal Fireworks with the half a million
>oboes? I've always wanted this recording, and now that I can actually
>afford it I don't know where to look...

This is the Robert King, and yes, he made the Hyperion recording in
question, using the wind-band forces specified in the Handel manuscript.
Maybe not a full half-million oboes, but 24 is a good gathering, I'd say
(along with a dozen bassoons, 9 trumpets and horns etc.).

It stands to note that this sort of ensemble has been done before, both on
modern and period instruments.  I'm not all that sure that King's version
of the Fireworks Music has any real revelations in it, but the disk has a
VERY nice "filler"--all four of the Coronation Anthems.

Bill H.