CORO Edition CORO The Essential Collection 2 CDs The Fairy Queen Handel: Dixit Dominus (2 CD set) Steffani: Stabat Mater

CORO The Sixteen Edition Based on Shakespeare's CORO The Sixteen Edition The Sixteen adds to 2 CDs A Midsummer Night's its stunning Handel Purcell Dream, The Fairy Queen Handel collection with a The Fairy Queen The Fairy Queen Dixit Dominus Ann Murray was composed in 1691/2 brand new recording The Lorna Anderson Gillian Fisher Steffani Michael Chance and remains without of his Dixit Dominus John Mark Ainsley Stabat Mater Ian Partridge Richard Suart doubt one of Purcell's set alongside a little Michael George The Sixteen greatest works adding his The Sixteen know treasure - magic, wit and sensuality harry christophers Agostino Steffani’s Sixteen cor16005 to that of the play. cor16076 Stabat Mater.

Compilation by: Robin Tyson - podiummusic.co.uk Re-mastering: Matt Howell (Floating Earth) Cover image: The Concert of Angels 1534-36, by Gaudenzio Ferrari (1474/80-1546) detail of fresco in the Sanctuary of Santa Maria delle Grazie, Saronno, Sounds The Bridgeman Art Library Nationality/copyright status: Italian/out of copyright Design: Andrew Giles - [email protected] For further information about recordings on CORO or live performances and tours by Sublime The Sixteen, call +44 (0) 20 7488 2629 or email [email protected]

2009 The Sixteen Productions Ltd. The Voices of © 2009 The Sixteen Productions Ltd. Made in Great Britain The Sixteen To find out more about The Sixteen, concert tours, and to buy CDs visit HARRY CHRISTOPHERS www.thesixteen.com cor16073 Sounds Sublime The Sixteen The Definitive Collection CD1 CD2 1 J. S. Bach Magnificat anima mea Dominum (from Magnificat in D, BWV 243) 2.55 1 G. F. Handel Arrival of the Queen of Sheba (from Solomon, HWV 67) 3.03 2 Tomás Luis de Victoria Ave Maria a 8 4.03 2 W. A. Mozart Laudate Dominum (from Vesperae solennes de Confessore K339) * 3.59 3 W. A. Mozart Ave verum corpus (K618) * 2.54 3 Gregorio Allegri Miserere Mei [Soloists: Sopranos: Ruth Dean & Sally Dunkley, 12.11 4 Domenico Scarlatti Iste confessor [Soprano soloist: Libby Crabtree] 3.23 Alto: Christopher Royall, Bass: Christopher Purves] 5 Thomas Tallis Spem in alium 9.35 4 Giovanni Pierluigi 6 Henry Purcell Man that is born of a woman (from Funeral Sentences, first set) 2.43 da Palestrina Kyrie (from Missa Papae Marcelli) 3.56 7 Henry Purcell Thou knowest, Lord, the secrets of our hearts (1695) 2.01 5 Juan Gutiérrez de Padilla Deus in adiutorium meum intende 2.08 8 G. F. Handel Coronation Anthem: Zadok the Priest (HWV 258) 5.43 6 Tomás Luis de Victoria O Domine Iesu Christe 3.36 9 Johannes Brahms Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen (from Ein Deutsches ) 6.32 7 John Sheppard Libera nos 3.22 [Piano duet: Gary Cooper & Christopher Glynn] 8 Frank Martin Agnus Dei (from for Double Choir) 5.41 bl Antonio Lotti Crucifixus a 8 3.14 9 John Tavener The Lamb 3.35 bm John Tavener A Hymn to the Mother of God 3.18 bl bn António Teixeira Te gloriosus Apostolorum (from Te Deum)[Soprano soloist: Lynda Russell] 5.18 Tomás Luis de Victoria Funeral motet: Versa est in luctum 4.03 bo Spring Song (from The Lark) [Alto soloist: Nigel Short] 1.54 bm Samuel Barber Agnus Dei [Soprano soloist: Ruth Dean] 8.25 bp Jean Yves Daniel-Lesur La voix du bien-aimé (from Le Cantique des Cantiques) 3.49 bn Advance Democracy 3.17 bq Gabriel Fauré Pie Jesu (from Requiem) * [Soprano soloist: Elin Manahan Thomas] 3.23 bo G. F. Handel Hallelujah (from HWV 56) 3.52 br Francis Poulenc Una hora (from Sept Répons des Ténèbres) † 3.27 bp J. S. Bach Chorus - Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben (from Cantata BWV 147) 2.42 bs Benjamin Britten A Hymn of Saint Columba 1.59 bq Antonio Vivaldi Gloria in excelsis Deo (from Gloria in D) 2.26 bt G. F. Handel Moses and the children of Israel (from Israel in Egypt, HWV 54) 0.57 br J. S. Bach Cantata 50: Nun ist das Heil und die Kraft (BWV 50) 3.43 bu G. F. Handel I will sing unto the Lord (from Israel in Egypt, HWV 54) 2.41 bs G. F. Handel Let the bright seraphim (from HWV 57) (Air & Chorus) 6.29 [Soprano soloist: Nicola Jenkin] [Soprano soloist: Lynne Dawson, Trumpet: Crispian Steele-Perkins] cl J. S. Bach Quoniam tu solus sanctus (from Mass in B minor, BWV 232) 4.30 [Bass soloist: Michael George, Horn: Roger Montgomery] Total Running Time 76.43 cm J. S. Bach Cum Sancto Spiritu (from Mass in B minor, BWV 232) 3.50 * with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields Total Running Time 78.21 † with the BBC Philharmonic 2 3 problem of planes circling as a result of how music might have been performed in airport congestion (probably the single most Handel’s London, Vivaldi’s Venice or other Sounds Sublime annoying interference), traffic noise, school Sounds Sublime great centres of musical production and hen The Sixteen made its London break-times, road-works, tree felling and mong the big ideas of theoretical display. An equally profound collective Wdebut in May 1979, I never thought even, on one bizarre occasion, the local Aphysics, not to mention countless sci- experience and shared artistry, developed that thirty years later we would have a council’s demonstration of the wheelie bin! fi plots, time travel is guaranteed to seize over the last thirty years, can be heard in discography of nigh on a hundred titles with However, Mark and Mike are always there to the imagination. Who wouldn’t want to all its diverse glory in the pieces assembled over half of these on our own label CORO. keep us calm and focussed. turn back the clock and discover how our from The Sixteen’s abundant catalogue Recording has been, and still is, a very ancestors lived, to witness history’s making of recordings. Sounds Sublime includes When it was suggested that we should important part of our raison d’être. It never gets or experience the ritual drama of a date beautiful miniatures of sacred music, compile this album from our extensive any easier, but thankfully the actual process in the calendar of epoch defining events? discography, I began to jot down numerous sumptuous settings of devotional texts, and has been a joy, largely due to the convivial In lieu of a time machine, The Sixteen songs of sorrow and praise. yet expert manner of Mark Brown, our things but found myself listing far too many of my favourites and indeed not being at all and Harry Christophers have the means If our proposed itinerary of musical producer, and Mike Hatch, our engineer, both to transport you to glorious soundworlds time travel sounds far-fetched or hopelessly of whom have been with us for many years. objective. So it was decided that I should hand the task over to someone who would past. Sounds Sublime reaches back to the romantic, then turn an ear to Purcell’s We have recorded in many venues, from be objective; that person was Robin Tyson, heartlands of western religious music, its settings of the Funeral Sentences from The the warm and almost perfect sound of the known to many of you, no doubt, as one of programme complete with memorable Book of Common Prayer. Man that is Maltings in Snape to the very different The King’s Singers. Robin listened to every detours into sacred works written for born of a woman and Thou knowest, Lord, acoustics of London churches - All Hallows track on every disc and I must say that I am the secular concert hall. This enriching the secrets of our hearts were written for Gospel Oak, St Silas in Chalk Farm, St thrilled with the selection he has made; it retrospective sets its compass towards the the funeral service of Queen Mary, held Michael’s Highgate, St Jude-on-the-Hill demonstrates what an incredibly versatile twin peaks of divine contemplation and in Westminster Abbey in March 1695. in Hampstead Garden Suburb, St Paul’s ensemble The Sixteen is. So many areas of spiritual sustenance. The monarch’s popular appeal attracted Deptford, St Giles Cripplegate, All Saints music are visited yet all benefit from the Many of the pieces gathered together thousands onto the streets around Whitehall Tooting and St Augustine’s Kilburn. All varied approach to everything we do. This on these discs were written to accompany for the occasion, just as the funeral of were chosen specifically for the sound is a real tribute to everyone who has been a occasions long since buried in dusty Diana, Princess of Wales almost four we wanted to create with the appropriate part of The Sixteen. textbooks or crushed beneath the weight centuries later brought central London to repertoire. Occasionally we have been of obscure historical facts. Their sounds a standstill. Thou knowest, Lord, originally blessed with relatively quiet days but many are indeed sublime. They are informed ‘accompanied with flat mournful trumpets’, times we have had to with the perennial here by The Sixteen’s deep knowledge of also graced Purcell’s burial service and 4 5 played an affective part in the music heard at Leipzig’s St Thomas School. To mark his from music composed during his time history of western classical music. God’s at Princess Diana’s funeral. first Leipzig Christmas, Bach created several as a musician in service to the dukes of praise takes pride of place in Bach’s setting Handel’s Zadok the Priest was created new works, among them a rich and suitably Weimar to accommodate a text appropriate of Quoniam tu solus sanctus (‘For thou for another royal Westminster Abbey festive setting of the Latin Magnificat for to the Feast of the Visitation (2 July 1723). only art holy’), elevated by the bass soloist occasion, one of four works written performance on Christmas Day. In 1733 Anglo-Saxon audiences have come to know and an extraordinarily potent virtuoso by the composer for the coronation of the composer revised his Magnificat and the work’s lilting final chorale, Jesus bleibet instrumental mix of hunting horn, two King George II and his consort Queen presented the modified version following meine Freunde, by its familiar translated bassoons and continuo. The bass voice, as Caroline in October 1727. According to a five-month mourning period for the title ‘Jesu, joy of man’s desiring’. Bach’s so often in music of the period, is used to contemporary reports, the service was both Elector Friedrich August I of Saxony. The simple four-part choral treatment of a much represent the majesty of Christ. majestic and glamorous. Recalling events work’s dance-like opening movement, earlier Lutheran hymn emerges from an It appears that Bach’s Mass was never from the distance of the next coronation complete with trumpets and drums, intricate web of instrumental counterpoint, performed complete during the composer’s in 1761, the composer William Boyce magnifies its celebratory spirit. Bach’s the outline of which mirrors notes from the lifetime. We know exactly where and when referred to the ceremony as the scene consummate mastery of counterpoint, the hymn tune’s opening phrases. Handel’s Messiah entered the world. The of the ‘first Grand Musical Performance’. sounding together of independent voices Scholars remain divided over basic piece was written for Dublin’s New Music Handel's Coronation Anthems, settings and instruments, registers loud and clear questions concerning the origin and use of Hall and attracted a capacity crowd to of texts drawn from the ancient order throughout the composition. Nun ist das Heil und die Kraft BWV 50 its first performance, a charity fundraiser, of service used since medieval times, During Bach’s early years in Leipzig, he (‘Now is the salvation and the power’), which on 13 April 1742. London audiences reinforced the German-born composer’s devoted almost superhuman effort and survives only as a single movement. Some took Handel’s oratorio to heart when it value as a composer of music for the inventive powers to the composition of have even questioned its attribution to Bach, became established as the ideal work to British state. They also secured an abiding sacred cantatas for performance during although not one has suggested a plausible raise funds for Thomas Coram’s Foundling place in the cultural inheritance of his Sunday morning services in the city. His alternative author. It is clear from the work’s Hospital, an institution for the ‘education second homeland. The dramatic unfolding surviving output of around two hundred effective use of two choirs of four parts each and maintenance of exposed and deserted of Zadok the Priest, perfectly paced in The cantatas includes new works and earlier and the breathtaking complexity of its fugal young children’. The Hallelujah chorus, Sixteen’s performance, matches the blend pieces revised to suit the spiritual needs of writing that its composer almost certainly with words drawn from the Book of of solemnity and rejoicing associated in the Leipzig congregations. The uplifting cantata conceived the piece for a grand occasion. Revelation, brings the work’s central coronation service with the King’s anointing. Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben BWV Breathtaking counterpoint also carries exposition of Christ’s passion to its close in Four years before Handel’s big royal date, 147 (‘Heart and mouth, deeds and life’) was the argument in the captivating Cum a blaze of choral glory. his exact contemporary Johann Sebastian completed within the first few weeks of Sancto Spiritu fugue from his mighty Mass Israel in Egypt was written for the Bach landed the prestigious job of Cantor Bach’s arrival in Leipzig, partly refashioned in B minor, one of the greatest works in the King’s Theatre in London’s Haymarket

6 7 in 1739. Its dramatic set-piece choruses The Church of ’s musical mission company with local black craftsmen. celebrated forty-part Spem in alium dates proved enduringly popular with the benefited greatly from the work of the Gregorio Allegri certainly found from Elizabeth’s reign. One theory suggests massed ranks of Victorian choral societies. Spaniard Tomás Luis de Victoria and his inspiration in the work of Palestrina’s that this wondrous composition was The Sixteen’s performance of I will sing Italian colleague Giovanni Pierluigi da generation. The Roman composer’s modern written to mark the Queen’s fortieth birthday unto the Lord unleashes the full force of Palestrina, who both lived and worked in fame rests on the success of one piece, a in 1573, although recent research favours Handel’s thrilling fugal description of the the Eternal City. The austere dignity of matchless Miserere conceived for the papal that it was commissioned by Thomas Israelites’ delivery from the Egyptian army. Victoria’s Versa est in luctum, written to choir and reserved for many years to be Howard, the music-loving fourth Duke of The Old Testament stories of Solomon adorn the burial mass, and the timeless sung exclusively by its members during Norfolk, to serve as an English artist’s reply and Samson serve as source material reverence of Palestrina’s Missa Papae Holy Week. In this performance, The to another showpiece for forty independent respectively for Handel’s eponymous Marcelli, from which we hear the Kyrie, Sixteen presents a coruscatingly beautiful voices by the Italian Alessandro Striggio. oratorios, from which the suitably regal served as models of expressive and textual version of the work first published by Tallis upheld national pride by creating instrumental Sinfonia, universally known clarity that other Catholic composers Dr Charles Burney in the 1770s. The a monumental composition in which as Arrival of the Queen of Sheba, and the followed for generations. Juan Gutiérrez emotional distance and harmonic purity of eight choirs of five voices build a complex aria and chorus Let the bright seraphim de Padilla, born in the Spanish city of Allegri’s greatest hit contrast sharply with architecture of polyphony above a simple are undisputed hits. Málaga around 1590, was trained in the the grief-laden chromaticism of Antonio underlying chordal structure. Tallis’s Sounds Sublime spans five centuries style of sacred choral music developed and Lotti’s Crucifixus for eight voices, probably younger contemporary John Sheppard of creativity, from the time of Tallis and exemplified by Palestrina. An ordained written for the Saxon court in Dresden wrote most of his surviving works for Palestrina to pieces written by John Tavener priest, Padilla became chapel master at in the early 1700s. Within its three- Mary Tudor’s Chapel Royal. His exquisite within The Sixteen’s lifespan. The earliest Cádiz Cathedral in 1616 and crossed and-a-half-minute span, Lotti conveys antiphon Libera nos for seven voices, compositions presented here date from the Atlantic a few years later to hold the Christ’s suffering on the cross in music of weaves its hypnotic prayer for salvation the sixteenth century, an age marked in same post at Puebla Cathedral in Mexico, heartbreaking intensity. around the notes of an ancient plainchant the west by the shock of religious reform then part of the viceroyalty of New Spain. Thomas Tallis wrote for the old and new melody. and counter-reform. Battles for the hearts Padilla’s imposing setting for eight voices churches established under four English Composers frequently blurred and minds of Christian souls were fought of Deus in adiutorium meum intende is monarchs: he created sublime Latin music boundaries between religious ritual and across Europe and in the Catholic outposts preserved in a magnificent volume of works for Henry VIII and his aggressively Catholic operatic drama during the eighteenth of the New World. Music played its part copied for use by the Puebla Cathedral daughter Mary Tudor, while trimming his century, usually to the delight of fashionable in the struggle between the established choir. Its original performance was almost professional sails to help build a repertoire worshippers and the weary indignation of order of Roman Catholicism and the new certainly backed by instruments created of compositions for the Anglican Church ecclesiastical authorities. António Teixiera’s ideologies of Protestantism. in the workshop Padilla established in under Edward VI and Elizabeth I. Tallis’s career brought him close to church and

8 9 stage. The Portuguese musician wrote queen of Poland and, in 1714, became The Magic Flute to visit his wife, who was eternal praise, ‘die loben dich immerdar’. works for Lisbon Cathedral and operas chapel master of the Cappella Giulia at receiving treatment at the sulphuric spa Fauré’s Requiem, unlike many grander for the city’s Teatro do Bairro Alto, where St Peter’s Basilica in Rome. His beguiling baths in Baden, near Vienna. Apparently nineteenth-century settings, is concerned they were performed by almost life-size setting of the ancient hymn to St Martin Anton Stoll, the Baden choirmaster and with personal grief and divine mercy. puppets! His richly endowed Te Deum, of Tours, Iste confessor, was written a close friend of the Mozarts, asked the “Just as Mozart’s is the only Ave verum for twenty voices and orchestra, was first during his time at the Cappella Giulia. composer to provide a short work for corpus,” observed the composer Camille performed in the church of St Roque on The composition’s folk-like simplicity performance on the Sunday following Saint-Saëns, Fauré’s “is the only Pie Jesu.” New Year’s Eve 1731. The Te gloriosus strengthens its power as a work of musical the feast of Corpus Christi. Remarkable The setting for solo soprano with an movement proudly echoes the style of prayer. While Scarlatti was building his for its intensely concentrated mood of accompaniment of organ, strings and harp contemporary Roman church music in its reputation in Rome, Antonio Vivaldi had reflection, Ave verum corpus reveals Mozart humbly asks ‘kind Lord Jesus’ to grant initial chorus before raising the curtain on already made his name in Venice, not at his most tender and devout. Laudate eternal rest to the souls of the departed. a soprano solo that might have come direct least as a rather wayward priest and for his Dominum, another miniature masterpiece, Sounds Sublime periodically moves from the Italian opera house. The piece notorious vanity. In the eighteenth century’s comes from Mozart’s Vesperae solennes de back to the future to encounter twentieth- flows seamlessly in this recording into early years, the red-haired composer and Confessore, probably written in 1780 for century sacred masterpieces. The austere Leonard Bernstein’s Spring Song, written violin wizard worked for the Ospedale performance in Salzburg. Despite its sacred beauty of Frank Martin’s Agnus Dei, from as a sequence of incidental choruses and della Pietà, a Venetian girls’ orphanage. His text and reflective passages for choir, the his Mass for Double Choir of 1926, and the other music for Lillian Hellman’s 1955 Gloria, driven in its opening movement by solo soprano’s music could easily have been nostalgic, folk-like simplicity of La voix Broadway adaptation of Jean Anouilh’s play ebullient energy and dash, was created to invented with the opera house in mind. du bien-aimé from Daniel-Lesur’s 1953 The Lark, an imaginative interpretation demonstrate the highly developed musical Death and its contemplation occupied setting of The Song of Songs bear witness to of the trial, condemnation, and execution skills of the Pietá’s wards. Johannes Brahms and Gabriel Fauré in the legion of modern composers inspired of Joan of Arc. Old and new coalesce in According to legend, Emperor Joseph their notably individual approaches by past sounds. The musical concerns of Bernstein’s work, which blends traces of II criticised Mozart for writing ‘too many to the Requiem. Brahms, agnostic and ultra-modernism are certainly far removed with a Latin American- notes’ in one of his operas. The imperial humanist in his outlook, turned to Martin from Samuel Barber’s Agnus Dei, arguably style round dance. verdict could never be attached to the Luther’s Bible rather than the words of the the finest choral transcription of an As the sixth of ten children, the composer’s perfectly formed setting of Ave venerable Latin Mass for the Dead for his A instrumental work ever made. Economy of prodigiously talented Domenico Scarlatti verum corpus. The work dates from the German Requiem. Wie lieblich sind deine means and beauty of sound lie at the heart followed in the professional footsteps of last year of Mozart’s life, a period of testing Wohnungen (‘How lovely is thy dwelling of Barber's composition. The work began his composer father. The young musician financial hardship and personal setbacks. place’) contrasts the wistful opening words life as part of his String Quartet, which, in joined the service of the exiled former In June 1791 Mozart interrupted work on of Psalm 88 with an uplifting statement of its arrangement for string orchestra, proved

10 11 an intense musical complement to Oliver stage in Britten’s Advance Democracy of Stone’s harrowing anti-war film, Platoon. 1937. The composer turned alchemist to The emotional ebb and flow of the original convert a leaden poem by the English Sounds Sublime score ideally matches the mood of the Latin writer and communist activist Randall Sounds Sublime tracks are taken from these recordings by The Sixteen available on CORO: prayer: ‘Lamb of God, who takest away the Swingler into a bold choral rallying call sins of the world, have mercy on us’. against the rising tide of European fascism. CD1 CD2 Benjamin Britten’s A Hy mn of St Columba Britten’s friend and colleague Francis 1 COR16042 Vivaldi - Gloria in D major 1 COR16066 Handel - Coronation Anthems Bach - Magnificat in D major blends the words of a sixth-century Gaelic Poulenc, meanwhile, had been moved to 2 COR16057 Fauré - Requiem 2 missionary with music by turns exultant rediscover his Catholic faith in the summer COR16035 Devotion to Our Lady 3 COR16014 Allegri - Miserere 3 and intimate. Another hymn, this time of 1936 following the accidental death of a COR16057 Fauré - Requiem 4 COR16014 Allegri - Miserere addressed to the Virgin Mary, connects musician friend and a visit to the shrine of 4 COR16003 Iste Confessor 5 COR16059 Streams of Tears the universal with the particular in the life the so-called Black Virgin at Rocamadour. 5 CORSACD16016 Spem in Alium 6 COR16001 The Flowering of Genius of John Tavener. A Hymn to the Mother Poulenc’s Una hora non potuistis vigilare 6 COR16024 Love’s Goddess Sure Was Blind 7 COR16037 Philip & Mary of God, written for Winchester Cathedral mecum (‘Could you not watch one hour 7 COR16024 Love’s Goddess Sure Was Blind 8 COR16029 Frank Martin Choir in 1985, stands as the composer’s with me’) is the first of his Sept Répons des 8 COR16066 Handel - Coronation Anthems 9 COR16015 Ikon of Light heartfelt response to the death of his Ténèbres, an exquisitely crafted setting of 9 COR16050 Ein Deutsches Requiem bl CORSACD16033 Victoria - Requiem 1605 mother; it also invokes the mystical power words from the Latin Holy Week service bl COR16014 Allegri - Miserere bm of words drawn from the Orthodox Liturgy of Tenebrae. The piece, first performed in COR16031 Barber - Agnus Dei bm COR16015 Ikon of Light of St Basil. Tavener’s finely etched setting April 1963, was originally commissioned bn COR16038 Fen & Meadow bn COR16009 Teixeira - Te Deum of William Blake’s poem The Lamb was by the New York Philharmonic to mark bo COR16062 Handel - Messiah bo conceived for his young nephew in 1982. its opening season at Lincoln Center for COR16031 Barber - Agnus Dei bp COR16039 Bach - Cantatas 34, 50 & 147 “It was composed from seven notes in an the Performing Arts. It proved to be both bp COR16023 La Jeune France bq COR16042 Vivaldi - Gloria in D major afternoon,” Tavener recalls. “Blake's child- Poulenc’s last sacred work and final choral bq COR16057 Fauré - Requiem Bach - Magnificat in D major like vision perhaps explains The Lamb's composition. Shortly after completing br COR16013 à la Gloire de Dieu br COR16039 Bach - Cantatas 34, 50 & 147 great popularity in a world that is starved the opening movement, he wrote that the bs COR16006 Blest Cecilia bs COR16008 Handel - Samson of this precious and sacred dimension in piece was “more Mantegna than Zurbaran”, bt COR16011 Handel - Israel in Egypt almost every aspect of life.” vivid and emotionally direct rather than bu COR16011 Handel - Israel in Egypt Politics, buried beneath the sacred surface sentimental in character. cl COR16044 Bach - Mass in B minor For more information visit of several pieces on this album, takes centre © Andrew Stewart 2009 cm COR16044 Bach - Mass in B minor www.thesixteen.com 12 13 Harry Christophers is known internationally as founder and conductor of The Sixteen as well as a regular guest conductor for many of the major symphony orchestras and opera companies worldwide. He has directed The Sixteen choir and orchestra throughout Europe, America and the Far East gaining a distinguished reputation for his work in Renaissance, Baroque and twentieth century music. In 2000 he instituted the ‘Choral Pilgrimage’, a national tour of English cathedrals from York to Canterbury in music from the pre-Reformation, as The Sixteen’s contribution After three decades of world-wide performance and to the millennium celebrations. It raised awareness of recording, The Sixteen is recognised as one of the world’s this historic repertoire so successfully that the Choral greatest ensembles. Comprising both choir and period Pilgrimage in the UK is now central to The Sixteen's instrument orchestra, the group’s special reputation for annual artistic programme. performing early English polyphony, masterpieces of the Renaissance, Baroque and early Classical, and a diversity of twentieth century music, all stems In 2008 Harry Christophers was appointed Artistic Director of Boston’s Handel and from the passions of conductor and founder, Harry Christophers. Haydn Society, he is also Principal Guest Conductor of the Granada Symphony Orchestra as well as enjoying a very special partnership with the BBC Philharmonic with whom he The Sixteen tours throughout Europe, Japan, Australia and the Americas and has given won a Diapason d’Or. He is a regular guest conductor with the Academy of St Martin in regular performances worldwide at the major concert halls and festivals. At home in the UK, the Fields and the Orquestra de la Comunidad de Madrid and he has conducted the Hallé, The Sixteen are "The Voices of Classic FM" as well as Associate Artists of Southbank Centre, the London Symphony Orchestra and the San Francisco Symphony. London. The group also promotes The Choral Pilgrimage, an annual tour of the UK’s finest Increasingly busy in opera, Harry Christophers has conducted Monteverdi’s Il ritorno cathedrals, bringing music back to the buildings for which it was written. d’Ulisse, Gluck’s Orfeo, Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, Purcell’s King Arthur and Rameau’s The Sixteen’s period instrument orchestra has taken part in acclaimed semi-staged Platée for Lisbon Opera. After an acclaimed debut with The performances of Purcell’s Fairy Queen in Tel Aviv and London, a fully-staged production of Coronation of Poppea he has since returned for Gluck’s Orfeo and Handel’s , as Purcell’s King Arthur in Lisbon’s Belem Centre, and new productions of Monteverdi’s Il ritorno well as conducting the UK premiere of Messager’s opera Fortunio for Grange Park Opera. d’Ulisse at Lisbon Opera House and The Coronation of Poppea at English National Opera. He conducts regularly at Buxton Opera. Over one hundred recordings reflect The Sixteen’s quality in a range of work spanning Harry Christophers was awarded the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Music from the the music of five hundred years, winning many awards. In 2008, The Sixteen featured in the University of Leicester in 2008. highly successful BBC Four television series, Sacred Music, presented by Simon Russell Beale. 14 15