CORO CORO Barber: Agnus Dei Padre Pio: Prayer An American Collection A remarkable disc Barber, Bernstein, featuring commissions Copland, Fine, Reich, by the Genesis del Tredici Foundation from “The Sixteen are, as James MacMillan, usual, in excellent Roxanna Panufnik form here. Recording and Will Todd. and remastering are topnotch.” cor16071 cor16031 American Record Guide O Guiding Night Hail, Fauré: Requiem Mother of the Redeemer Mozart: Vespers The Spanish Mystics Sumptuous music Elin Manahan Thomas in celebration of Roderick Williams the Virgin Mary Harry Christophers Tarik O’Regan from Spain’s The Sixteen greatest Renaissance Academy of St Martin Roderick Williams composer - Tomás in the Fields Luis de Victoria. “…the sense of an ecstatic Ruth Byrchmore movement towards cor16088 cor16057 Paradise is tangible.” the times The Sixteen To find out more about The Sixteen, concert tours, and to buy CDs visit Harry Christophers www.thesixteen.com cor16090 O Guiding Night

hose of you who follow Their brief was to present atmospheric and mystical works that will enhance TThe Sixteen both in concert the church music repertoire both for the divine service as well as the concert and through our recordings repertoire. What a wonderful thing it has been for us to realise that brief will know of our passion for and indeed go some way to implement Pope Benedict XVI’s wish to reform championing Iberian music of music in the Catholic church worldwide. He said at his inauguration in 2005: the Renaissance. With this disc Photograph: Marco Borggreve Marco Photograph: “…sacred polyphony constitutes a heritage that should be preserved with care, we have been able to take that kept alive and made better known, for the benefit not only of the scholars passion in another direction and and specialists but of the ecclesiastical community as a whole. An authentic focus on two prominent and very updating of sacred music can take place only in the lineage of the great special saints from that Golden tradition of the past, of Gregorian chant and sacred polyphony.” Age of Spanish culture: St. Teresa of Ávila and St. John of the Cross. I sincerely hope that with this recording we can live up to John Studzinski’s passion for new music and bring this heartfelt and quite beautiful sacred music Once again it is John Studzinski, through his inspirational Genesis Foundation, to a much wider audience. who has been the architect of this project. His total belief in the profound writings of these two remarkable saints has resulted in three contrasting composers, Ruth Byrchmore, Tarik O’Regan and Roderick Williams, setting to music St. Teresa’s prayer Nada te turbe (Let nothing trouble you) and St. John of the Cross’s poem En una noche oscura (One Dark Night). They have all rewarded us with very individual and highly personal insights into these texts.

2 3 O Guiding Night The Spanish Mystics ust as The Sixteen’s disc, Padre Pio: which Harry Christophers and The JPrayer (COR16071), also supported by Sixteen have championed for years and The Spanish Mystics the Genesis Foundation, featured new continue to do so. choral music from three contemporary composers to celebrate Padre Pio of St. Teresa was born near the Spanish city Pietrelcina, canonised in 2002 by Pope of Ávila in 1515. Having espoused the 1 Tarik O’Regan fleeting, God* 6.01 John Paul II, so this recording honours Carmelite order, she soon found herself two of the Roman Catholic church’s assailed by overwhelming and traumatic 2 Ruth Byrchmore The Dark Night* 10.32 most hallowed and influential figures experiences of religious ecstasy. She 3 Tarik O’Regan O vera digna hostia 4.23 hailing from the Golden Age of Spanish claimed that Christ had appeared to her; 4 literature: St. Teresa of Ávila and St. John and that a winged angel had pierced her Roderick Williams O Guiding Night* 10.11 of the Cross. heart with a golden spear. 5 Ruth Byrchmore Prayer of St. Teresa of Ávila* 4.59 6 As founding figures of a new Carmelite To pursue her ideals of quiet Tarik O’Regan Beloved, all things ceased* 10.07 order, St. Teresa’s and St. John of the Cross’s contemplation and self-denial, Teresa set 7 Roderick Williams Let nothing trouble you* 6.01 lives were closely interwoven; so were out to found a new order of Carmelites, their personal experiences. Both wrote dedicated to a simple, austere and 8 Ruth Byrchmore A Birthday 5.29 with visionary passion of the soul’s deep meditative life, unshackled by worldly 9 Roderick Williams O Adonai 7.23 yearning to be united with God, and of the goods. “Contemplative prayer,” she rapture and ecstasy of that union. Both declared, “is nothing other than a close Total running time 65.06 of their writings, including poetry, are sharing between friends: taking time seen as the summit of mystical literature: to be alone with Him who we know * Commissioned by the Genesis Foundation a match, in words, for the glorious music loves us.” She opened convents in many of their contemporary, the great Spanish major Spanish cities; and encountering composer Tomás Luis de Victoria, music a young monk, the future St. John of the 4 5 Cross, engaged his help in founding new The famous Prayer of St. Teresa, beginning and bitter resentment from within the St. John left us many books on spiritual monasteries. The new order was dubbed ‘Let nothing trouble you’ (Nada te turbe), Catholic church. growth and prayer. One of his most the ‘Discalced (‘shoeless’) Carmelites’, is known as ‘St. Teresa’s Bookmark’, remarkable and best-known poems, ‘The since its members favoured the wearing because it was discovered after her death Also born near Ávila, in 1542, St. John Dark Night’ (En una noche oscura) was of sandals. on a prayer card inside her Breviary, or received his education from the newly composed soon after his prison ordeal. liturgical handbook. founded Jesuits. Then, aged 20, he entered John writes with gripping power and rapt St. Teresa, like St. John, was subject to the Carmelite order. In 1567 by chance intensity of the soul’s aspiration to merge savage opposition and persecution; John Studzinski still recites St. Teresa’s he encountered St. Teresa. Attracted by with God. The language is both spiritual but she courageously continued her short prayer every day: ‘It’s so simple, her emphasis on austerity and solitary and strikingly erotic, at times recalling pioneering work till her death in 1582. yet profound: it addresses the whole contemplation, he was persuaded to help the Old Testament Song of Songs, or the Like Mother Teresa in our own day, question of achieving a deep-seated her found several new religious houses. Sufi mystics of Islam. she was canonised very soon, in 1622. peace: of sorting out one’s inner balance, It was then that he took the name Father Her writings and many letters are models one’s energies and priorities, with God as John of the Cross. Like John Studzinski, the award- of Spanish prose; while the passion and the anchor of all things. “Patience obtains winning composer Tarik O’Regan feels erotic intensity of her visions is vividly everything” I find a very powerful concept. John suffered appallingly at the hands passionately that ‘sacred music should reflected in Bernini’s sculptureThe Ecstasy St. Teresa was a deeply impressive, of the main Carmelite order, who enjoy a life not just in a church setting, of Saint Teresa, in Rome. nurturing and sustaining character, one imprisoned him in Toledo in a tiny, but beyond: without pandering down to whom I feel very closely drawn. I hope lightless cell. Yet during his incarceration at all, it should be ecumenical, reaching St. Teresa of Ávila is particularly revered this project may help put more people in he wrote his most famous extended poem, out to touch those of other faiths and by John Studzinski, founder of the touch with her and her remarkable life.’ the Spiritual Canticle; and it was these even those with no religion at all - just Genesis Foundation and instigator of this dark experiences that helped transform as Bach’s sacred music speaks to a much musical project, who speaks of ‘St. Teresa’s Like St. Teresa and Padre Pio, St. John him into the visionary mystic that he wider audience.’ formidable character, her extraordinary of the Cross experienced frequent subsequently became. (By coincidence St. courage and tenacity. She challenged the intense, exhausting, ecstatic and mystic John’s exact contemporary, El Greco, was Minimalism, with its repetitive patterns, establishment old guard, by defending the experiences during the night, sensing at that time producing some of his most is one vital influence on Tarik O’Regan’s role of women, by furthering the cause of himself to be reaching out to God’s loving ecstatic religious paintings in Toledo.) St. music (others include jazz, architecture, education and vigorously championing embrace, or tussling with the Devil. John of the Cross died in 1591 and was geometry and the art and culture the poor and marginalised in society’. Like them, he suffered violent hostility canonised in 1726. of North Africa); and it has some 6 7 bearing on his two Genesis Foundation sopranos edge up to a momentary last D, of the Westminster Cathedral organ O vera digna hostia 3 , written for commissions. ‘I was intrigued by the slyly returning us to the point whence in mind. Over a steady bass line which Winchester Cathedral, is one of seven life the religious orders lived then, and we started. preserves, the composer says, ‘a feeling settings Tarik O’Regan has made based to some extent do now. The idea of of stasis’, the sopranos launch sublimely on a Latin manuscript in the library repetitive prayer, the repetitive routine Ruth Byrchmore has composed many with a lithe rising pattern which the of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, of their daily life, strongly influenced the vocal and choral works since she wrote organ decorates with short flutters, like known as the Portiforium of St. way I approached these pieces. Both are her first important liturgical piece, In piquant arabesques, engendering ‘a Wulfstan. ‘Nearly a thousand years old, fascinating, rich and complex texts: they manus tuas, for the Edington Festival. kind of dance between the voices and the Portiforium’ the composer explains, have a surface simplicity, yet one only She has excelled in many other fields, not accompaniment.’ Below, lower voices ‘contains psalms, canticles, hymns, a has to read them twice to realise there’s least in children’s opera, and in operatic introduce a recurrent falling semiquaver calendar of the religious year: it’s a kind immense depth and wisdom.’ outreach, drawing countless children motif, soon taken up by all: this creates of reference book, in many respects like into the creative process of opera (her a jostling, excitable forward momentum, a forerunner of the Book of Common Like the silence of a monastic cell, the collaboration with Welsh National Opera resumed more calmly, even hypnotisingly, Prayer.’ Wulfstan, he adds, ‘was one of the opening of fleeting, God 1 is absolutely deservedly drew wide acclaim.) after a forceful organ interlude. very few senior members of the Saxon- calm. Over tranquil, sustained lower era church who retained their posts after voices, intoning the single sound ‘ah’, Ruth was particularly captivated, she At ‘O guiding night’ comes a magical the Norman Conquest.’ the altos and sopranos add soft, almost says, ‘by the intense atmosphere of change: the choir embarks on a seraphic whispered interjections, encouraging both of these Spanish texts: St. John chorale, until the accompaniment, The voices fold in sensitively, and unveil one another along. Then a radiant of the Cross’s poem ‘The Dark Night’ now becalmed, lures the voices into a meltingly beautiful, leisurely chorale soprano line beams out above and being more visionary and complex, a an exquisite, lilting canon. The organ celebrating Christ’s victory over death sublimely intones St. Teresa’s prayer, deeply personal struggle, while the terrifyingly harks back to the start, and and hell (Tartarus denotes the Classical patient, unhurried and reassuring, prayer of St. Teresa is more immediate, initiates a massive declamatory passage underworld’s deepest abyss). Next (rather gradually building over warm, close-knit straightforward and consoling.’ for the choir (‘I abandoned and forgot like in fleeting, God) the three lower chords to a joyous climax. The opening myself’). Finally the choir’s gorgeous voices engage in a kind of whispered calm returns, but with roles reversed – Her setting of The Dark Night 2 opens opening music returns: a hint, as the conversation, reiterating the sound ‘o’, the upper voices still, the lower voices with a dramatic organ prelude, its mood composer remarks, that ‘this may be not prodded by light appoggiaturas, or grace punctuating. Finally the female voices suggestive of fiery inner conflict, and the end, but rather the beginning of a notes; meanwhile the divided sopranos are left holding on, fading away, till the composed with the magnificent sound recurring cycle that goes on forever.’ benignly repeat the opening text, and are 8 9 joined in unison by the basses - the effect first notes are marked ‘hushed, excited’ At the word ‘patience’, each voice adds St. John of the Cross’s poem ‘The Dark is rather like plainsong. ‘O praemia’ is – ‘as if’, Williams says, ‘there is some tiny decorative melismas, which shyly Night’, first with an attractive medieval characterised by its upward striding bass urgent or ecstatic piece of news which enhance the entranced, mystic feeling. feel; then, transposed up a tone, in light line. Tarik then brings back the opening the speaker is bursting to divulge’. Soon, Triplets suggest growing excitement – staccato patterns, strange and mysterious; music, but tames the stabbing quavers after two tranquil keyboard interludes, the instructions ‘flexible’ and ‘fluid’ and then as a serene chorale. Soon all the into soothing amens, over which first and the voices pair off in unison, in a imply the rhythms should be not unduly voices, syncopated or on the beat, initiate second sopranos stage a sublime descent, gorgeous passage (somewhat redolent of rigid; the bass line remains more static: a series of dancing ‘oh’s, lightly percussive, the lower line exquisitely ornamenting Finzi) evoking in St. John of the Cross’s edging downwards by slow steps, it acts jerky, subtly counterpointed and the top line, before all resolve on a words the rapturous uniting of lover as a secure anchor. Later on, markings deliciously unpredictable: one might call reassuring chord of G major. and beloved. At ‘O guiding night’ the like ‘stately’ and ‘magnificent’ initiate a the effect pointilliste. Ultimately St. John’s sopranos’ high line adds to the rejoicing, more confident mood. A declamatory text itself gets subsumed into the staccato One of the finest baritones of his ‘bursting out’ as if the whole firmament of sequence (‘God alone suffices’), insistently patterns, delivered rather automaton-like generation, admired for his performances heaven were being addressed. The voices hammered out four times, makes way for (almost as if in a trance), with the words of English song and on the operatic stage then revisit the mood of the opening, the returning triplets. Finally a tranquil interleaved so as to evoke ‘the curiously alike, Roderick Williams sees composing again alternating C and D (a significant close is induced by a gentle rocking disembodied, yet highly sensual,’ moment as a ‘glorified hobby’ – a welcome detail that alludes to Williams’s setting of pattern, like a reassuring cradle song that of enlightenment where lover and beloved relaxation from his busy solo career. His St. Teresa’s Prayer) and touching on rich seems to fade out in midstream. are transfigured and united. output is prolific and varied, and includes harmonies. The last passage, becalmed a substantial piece based on Purcell’s and consoling, fades almost to nothing, Tarik O’Regan’s Beloved, all things ceased The lilting opening patterns return, now Come, ye Sons of Art, written for large finally subsiding onto a C major chord 6 has a memorable start. Brusquely ‘transformed’ down a tone: they suggest choral and orchestral forces, including while leaving the piano a brief last word. prompted by the piano, wordless a rippling carillon heard from afar. The a Gospel Choir and The Sixteen, for the sopranos and altos launch a kind of fast- lower voices’ warm chorale seems literally reopening of London’s Royal Festival Ruth Byrchmore prefaces her flowing, lapping barcarolle, the two parts to caress and embrace the cherished Hall in 2007, conducted by Harry unaccompanied Prayer of St. Teresa interweaving and rhythmically interacting. ‘beloved’, before the lulling first bars Christophers. of Ávila 5 with the instruction ‘Steady, The effect is deliberately mesmerising, yet reappear in the original key, reinforcing reflective, intensely calm’: and it is this has also, the composer emphasises, ‘a strong the setting’s deliberately palindromic feel. He prefaces O Guiding Night 4 with a soothing stillness and absolute calm that sense of drive, underlining the feeling of a Tenors and basses resume their staccato joyous piano prelude; then the choir’s she consciously evokes at the opening. journey’. Below, basses and tenors fold in mutterings, which abruptly cease, leaving 10 11 the listener with the tantalising feeling the word ‘unchanging’, until the opening something of ‘the fragility’ of the love it First a solo ‘Angel’ sings a distinctive, that there might be more to say. music returns, but with the tenors now expresses. A solo soprano launches with angular sequence, whose five fragmentary allotted the sopranos’ expressive opening what sounds like a sudden, exultant burst phrases the sopranos then take up, Roderick Williams found himself phrase. Warm harmonies ensue, and an of birdsong. The others blithely imitate hauntingly repeating them not together instantly drawn to the ‘comforting ensuing accelerando, nudged on by eager her, while lower voices provide a steadying but individually, in a random order as the nature’ of St. Teresa’s words: ‘Hers is a triplets, yields another affirmative, though harmonic anchor: their determined singers feel inspired, thus creating a kind prayer of protection and consolation,’ deliberately restrained, climax. The final repetitions feel almost like a mantra. of Babel of mysterious words and sounds. Roderick says, ‘but it also has a sort of bars meditate on the word ‘patience’, with The effect is magical and enthralling: it loving maternal feel about it, almost like the basses and tenors repeating lulling After two or three passionate climaxes, all feels almost disembodied. At the same a lullaby.’ Let nothing trouble you 7 chords in close harmony, ushering the suddenly dissolves over a touching bass time, chanting men’s voices steadily opens hypnotisingly, as lower voices chant work to a profoundly beautiful close, and solo. Then verse two offers a contrast in intone chords invoking ‘Adonai’ – ‘God’ the word ‘nothing’, a bit like fingering a tenderly nursing us back to the point mood: Rossetti’s sumptuous and fragrant in Hebrew – at times echoing the soaring rosary. Above the sopranos launch into whence we started. evocation of riches and finery is captured intervals of the upper ‘angels’. a hauntingly beautiful melody, settling in a kaleidoscope of lusciously shifting on the repeated word ‘fleeting’: worldly Ruth Byrchmore’s exquisite setting keys alternating major and minor, which A solo ‘cantor’ folds in amid the lower things are mere chaff compared with A Birthday 8 was composed in 2004 as grows to an exciting climax (‘Because the voices, a bit like the enraptured chanting God’s enduring quality; whereas patience a St. Cecilia’s Day anthem for the joint birthday of my life is come’). The final of a muezzin, adding to the feeling of – making oneself available to God in calm choirs of St. Paul’s Cathedral, Westminster bars, still exuberant but calmer, serve as harmonic tension. His allusion to God’s contemplation – ‘can obtain everything’. Abbey and Westminster Cathedral. It is a coda in which the soprano soloist (the appearance to Moses in the burning bush The falling top line mirrors or inverts the beautifully conceived, and appropriately ‘singing bird’) has the joyous last word. reinforces the piece’s Old Testament feel. sopranos’ first entry – now musing on the won her a British Composer Award. As his impassioned appeal subsides, the word ‘everything’, and then dwelling on Roderick Williams’s Antiphon O Adonai soprano soloist re-enters, now soaring the phrase ‘God alone’, each time ‘offering As Ruth observes, Christina Rossetti’s 9 was commissioned by Jeffrey seraphically on high. The lower voices the listener a chance for reflection’. innocent, ecstatic and charged text shares Skidmore for his Birmingham-based eventually die out, leaving the angelic some of the mystic fervour of the two choir Ex Cathedra. Rather than upper voices gradually to fade away, as if Urged on by a solo tenor, the music speeds Renaissance Spanish poets (and also that consoling or enraptured, the mood here processing into the distance. up to a modest first climax, reinforced by of another Spanish poet whose lines she is imprecatory. The different groupings an opulent key change, pausing anew on has set, Lorca). Her aim was to capture are, ideally, spatially separated and apart. © 2011 Roderic Dunnett 12 13 Texts & Translations 3. This guided me 3. Aquesta me guiaba more surely than the light of noon más cierto que la luz del mediodía 1 to where he was awaiting me adonde me esperaba Tarik O’Regan fleeting, God – him I knew so well – quien yo bien me sabía Let nothing trouble you, Nada te turbe, there in a place where no one appeared. en sitio donde nadie aparecía. Let nothing frighten you, nada te espante; Everything is fleeting, todo se pasa, 4. O guiding night! 4. ¡Oh noche, que guiaste! God alone is unchanging. Dios no se muda. O night more lovely than the dawn! ¡Oh noche amable más que la alborada! Patience will obtain everything. La pacientia todo lo alcanza. O night that has united ¡Oh noche que juntaste The one who possesses God wants for nothing: Quien a Dios tiene nada la falta: the Lover with his beloved, amado con amada, God alone suffices. solo Dios basta. transforming the beloved in her Lover. amada en el amado transformada! Prayer of St. Teresa of Ávila 5. Upon my flowering breast 5. En mi pecho florido, which I kept wholly for him alone, que entero para él solo se guardaba 2 Ruth Byrchmore The Dark Night there he lay sleeping, allí quedó dormido and I caressing him y yo le regalaba 1. One dark night, 1. En una noche oscura there in a breeze from the fanning cedars. y el ventalle de cedros aire daba. fired with love’s urgent longings con ansias en amores inflamada – ah, the sheer grace! – ¡oh dichosa ventura! 6. I abandoned and forgot myself, 6. Quedéme y olvidéme i went out unseen, salí sin ser notada laying my face on my Beloved; el rostro recliné sobre el amado; my house being now all stilled. estando ya mi casa sosegada, all things ceased; I went out from myself, cesó todo, y dejéme leaving my cares dejando mi cuidado 2. On that glad night, 2. En la noche dichosa forgotten among the lilies. entre las azucenas olvidado. in secret, for no one saw me, en secreto que nadie me veía nor did I look at anything, ni yo miraba cosa with no other light or guide sin otra luz y guía Translation: The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross N.B. Only six of the original eight verses have than the one that burned in my heart. sino la que en el corazón ardía. translated by Kieran Kavanaugh, OCD, and been used in this recording. Otilio Rodriguez, OCD, revised edition (1991) © 1991 ICS Publications

14 15 3 Tarik O’Regan O vera digna hostia 8 Ruth Byrchmore A Birthday soloists: Grace Davidson soprano Ben Davies bass O vera digna hostia, O Thou from whom hell’s monarch flies, Per quam fracta sunt tartara, O great, O very sacrifice My heart is like a singing bird Raise me a dais of silk and down; Redempta plebs captivate, Thy captive people are set free, Whose nest is in a water’d shoot; Hang it with vair and purple dyes; Reddita vitae praemia! And endless life restored in Thee! My heart is like an apple-tree Carve it in doves and pomegranates, Amen. Amen. Whose boughs are bent with thick-set fruit; And peacocks with a hundred eyes; from Sequence for St Wulfstan, My heart is like a rainbow shell Work it in gold and silver grapes, translation J.M. Neale (1818-86) That paddles in a halcyon sea; In leaves and silver fleurs-de-lys; My heart is gladder than all these, Because the birthday of my life Because my love is come to me. Is come, my love is come to me. 4 Roderick Williams O Guiding Night For text see track 2 Christina Rossetti (1830-94)

5 Ruth Byrchmore Prayer of St. Teresa of Ávila 9 Roderick Williams O Adonai, et Dux domus Israel For text see track 1 soloists: Grace Davidson Angel Mark Dobell Celebrant

O Adonai, O Mighty Lord, 6 Tarik O’Regan Beloved, all things ceased et Dux domus Israel, and leader of the house of Israël, For text see track 2 qui Moysi in igne flammae rubi who appeared to Moses in the flame of apparuisti, the burning bush, et ei in Sina legem dedisti: and didst give unto him the Law on Sinai: 7 veni ad redimendum nos come and redeem us Roderick Williams Let nothing trouble you in brachio extento. with outstretched arms. solo: Mark Dobell tenor For text see track 1

16 17 Tarik O’Regan (b.1978) Roderick Williams (b.1965) Born in London in 1978, Tarik O’Regan was Although better known to some as a baritone soloist, educated at Oxford University and subsequently Roderick Williams’ reputation as a composer is growing at Cambridge. His work has garnered two 2009 steadily. The BBC Singers recently broadcast his Advent grammy nominations (including Best Classical antiphon O Adonai, a piece which was chosen for publication Album), two British Composer Awards and an by Oxford University Press and which has received numerous NEA Artistic Excellence Grant. performances around the UK since. Photograph: Marion Ettlinger Photograph: Benjamin Ealovega Photograph: He has held the Fulbright Chester Schirmer Roderick studied music and composition at Oxford Fellowship at Columbia University and a University and his association with the Oxford Girls Choir Radcliffie Institute Fellowship at Harvard. led to a full-scale opera, Alice in Wonderland, premiered Other appointments include positions at Trinity in 1992 and revived twice since then. He has been much in and Corpus Christi Colleges in Cambridge, the demand as a choral and vocal composer. His commissions Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, and have included an oratorio for the Islington Music Festival, To Yale University. Mary a Son and Greyling for Southend Choral Society. 2010 marked the premiere of O’Regan’s BBC He has also written music for the Brighton Festival and incidental music for an OUP Proms commission, Latent Manifest, by the production of Richard II. His work with I Fagiolini in collaboration with a choir from Soweto Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the broadcast culminated in the album ‘Simunye’ for which he composed and arranged much of the music. of a self-penned documentary, Composing New He has received commissions from Ex Cathedra, Concordia, and Choros Amici as well as York, which he presented for BBC Radio. requests for songs from many of his singing colleagues. Roderick’s Jazz Choral Evensong service was written in 2006 in homage to Duke Ellington and was broadcast on BBC Radio 2011 saw the opening of Heart of Darkness, his opera based on Joseph Conrad’s novel of 3 in June that year. This was followed by a BBC Radio 4 commission of an accompanying the same name, at the Royal Opera House Linbury Theatre and the release of Acallam Na Matins service, broadcast in February 2007. Senórach, his third album on the Harmonia Mundi label. An expansion of Purcell’s Come ye Sons of Art was commissioned by the South Bank Centre to Tarik O’Regan’s music is published exclusively by Music Sales. celebrate the re-opening of the Festival Hall in June 2007. Performed by The Sixteen, the OAE and a 200 strong community Gospel choir, the piece, known as Purcell Goes Gospel, was requested for the Royal Gala concert in the presence of Her Majesty the Queen in October 2007.

18 19 Ruth Byrchmore Harry Christophers is known internationally as founder and conductor of The Sixteen as well as a regular Born and educated in Birmingham, England, guest conductor for many of the major symphony orchestras Ruth Byrchmore graduated from the Royal and opera companies worldwide. He has directed The Sixteen Academy of Music in 1991, with an MMus choir and orchestra throughout Europe, America and the in composition. In the same year, she became Far East gaining a distinguished reputation for his work in Parry Jerusalem Fellow & Composer-in- Renaissance, Baroque and twentieth-century music. In 2000 Residence at Wells Cathedral School, a post he instituted the Choral Pilgrimage, a national tour of English Borggreve Marco Photograph: supported for two years by the RVW Trust. cathedrals from York to Canterbury in music from the pre- Ruth received a British Composer Award in Reformation, as The Sixteen’s contribution to the millennium December 2005, for the MBF St. Cecilia Day celebrations. It raised awareness of this historic repertoire anthem A Birthday, performed in Westminster so successfully that the Choral Pilgrimage in the UK is now Abbey by the joint choirs of St. Paul’s central to The Sixteen's annual artistic programme. Cathedral, Westminster Abbey and In 2008 Harry Christophers was appointed Artistic Director of Boston’s Handel and Haydn Westminster Cathedral. Ruth is also the Society; he is also Principal Guest Conductor of both the Granada Symphony Orchestra and recipient of the 2004 RPS-Radio 3 Award for the Orquesta de la Comunidad de Madrid. As well as enjoying a very special partnership with Education for her Katerina opera project with the BBC Philharmonic, with whom he won a Diapason d’Or, he is a regular guest conductor Welsh National Opera. with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields and has also conducted the Hallé, the London Ruth’s work has been commissioned for Symphony Orchestra and the San Francisco Symphony. performance internationally and nationally, Increasingly busy in opera, Harry Christophers has conducted Monteverdi’s Il ritorno d’Ulisse, and she has been broadcast on both BBC Radio 3 and 4. She is published by Faber and Gluck’s Orfeo, Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, Purcell’s King Arthur and Rameau’s Platée for Lisbon Chester-Novello. Ruth is also currently Head of Alumni Development and Undergraduate Opera. After an acclaimed English National Opera debut with The Coronation of Poppea Tutor at the RAM, and teaches in the Academic Studies Department. he has since returned for Gluck’s Orfeo and Handel’s Ariodante, as well as conducting the UK premiere of Messager’s opera Fortunio for Grange Park Opera. He conducts regularly at Buxton Opera. Harry Christophers is an Honorary Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, as well as the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and has been awarded the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Music from the University of Leicester. 20 21 After three decades of world-wide performance and recording, The Sixteen is recognised as one of the world’s greatest ensembles. Its special reputation for performing early English polyphony, masterpieces of the Renaissance, Baroque and early Classical periods, and a diversity of twentieth-century music, all stems from the passions of conductor and founder, Harry Christophers. The Sixteen tours internationally giving regular performances at the major concert halls and festivals. At home in the UK, The Sixteen are ‘The Voices of Classic FM’ as well as Associate Artists of Bridgewater Hall, Manchester. The group also promotes the Choral Pilgrimage, an annual tour of the UK’s finest cathedrals. The Sixteen’s period-instrument orchestra has taken part in acclaimed semi-staged performances of Purcell’s Fairy Queen in Tel Aviv and London, a fully-staged production of Purcell’s King Arthur in Lisbon’s Belem Centre, and new productions of Monteverdi’s Il ritorno d’Ulisse at Lisbon Opera House and The Coronation of Poppea at English National Opera. www.thesixteen.com Over one hundred recordings reflect The Sixteen’s quality in a range of work spanning the music of five hundred years. In 2009 they won the coveted Classic FM Gramophone Artist of the Photograph: Mark Harrison Year Award and the Baroque Vocal Award for Handel’s Coronation Anthems. The Sixteen also feature in the highly successful BBC television series, Sacred Music, presented by Simon Russell Recording Producer: Mark Brown Beale. In 2011 the group launched a new training programme for young singers called Genesis Recording Engineer: Mike Hatch (Floating Earth) Sixteen. Aimed at 18 to 23 year-olds, this is the UK’s first fully-funded choral programme for Recorded at: St Giles, Cripplegate, London, January 2011 young singers designed specifically to bridge the gap from student to professional practitioner. Cover image: The installation ‘Light’ by Chris Levine for the Genesis Foundation Photo by Delmar Mavignier Design: Andrew Giles: [email protected] SOPRANO Julie Cooper, Grace Davidson, Sally Dunkley, 2011 The Voices of Kirsty Hopkins, Elin Manahan Thomas, Charlotte Mobbs The Sixteen Productions Ltd. © 2011 The Sixteen Productions Ltd. ALTO Ian Aitkenhead, David Clegg, William Missin, Christopher Royall Made in Great Britain For further information about recordings on CORO or live performances and tours by TENOR Simon Berridge, Jeremy Budd, Mark Dobell, Matthew Long The Sixteen, call: +44 (0) 20 7936 3420 or email: [email protected] Bass Ben Davies, Eamonn Dougan, Tim Jones, Rob Macdonald www.thesixteen.com organ / piano Robert Quinney