CORO CORO Handel: Jephtha Handel: Gilchrist, Bickley, Bevan, Blaze, Purves, Connolly, Murray, Atherton, Brook, Davidson Harvey, Dobell, Budd, Young “Harry Christophers’s “Christopher Purves taut, vibrant, and charms, broods, beautifully sprung fumes implacably, account is bright and plots villainously and dazzling...” confronts his doom bbc music magazine vividly in the manner of a Shakespearean tragedian.” cor16121 cor16103 gramophone ( Recording of the month) Handel: Handel: Sampson, Wyn-Rogers, Randle, Padmore, Russell, Dawson, Padmore, Purves Wyn-Rogers, George, Best “What a winning “Powerful choral combination: Handel’s singing from The Messiah, the most Sixteen and alert Handel popular oratorio ever playing by the period- written, sung by instrument band The Sixteen, the most make this the most Acis and richly sonorous of the pleasurable Samson early music choirs.” yet recorded.” Jeremy Budd | Grace Davidson | Stuart Young cor16062 the daily telegraph cor16008 the sunday times Mark Dobell | Simon Berridge To find out more about The Sixteen, concert tours, and to buy CDs | HARRY CHRISTOPHERS visit www.thesixteen.com cor16169 The Sixteen he story of , which I (cello) and Alastair Ross (harpsichord and organ) – they are so alert to every nuance T recall vividly from my student days as and the colours they achieve are quite extraordinary. a classicist, comes from ’s charming collection of tales, his . I regard Acis and Galatea as youthful in every respect. There is a grace, a charm, an Ovid was a great storyteller; the innocence about so much of the writing; it is only the giant who brings myths have a unifying theme – that of terror to the proceedings. It makes me very proud to be able to draw from The Sixteen transformation – of animals turned into five singers who are stylishly eloquent in their respective roles, but also sing as a Photograph: Marco Borggreve Marco Photograph: stone, to harmony, of humans disciplined yet exhilarating and individual ensemble. Grace’s lilting ‘As when the dove’, becoming stars or trees, or, in the case of Jeremy’s lyrical ‘Love in her eyes sits playing’, their youthful exuberance and sheer Acis, into a fountain. The myth has always giddy happiness when they duet in ‘Happy we!’, Mark’s intensely stylish ‘Consider, been a favourite with composers. fond shepherd’ and Simon’s gentle and thoughtful ‘Would you gain the tender creature’ all serve as a delicate tapestry to Stuart’s brilliantly executed ‘O ruddier than the In Handel’s hands the result is a charming for which he owes much to the cherry’, just enough comedy without resorting to panto buffoonery – you will just librettist John Gay (of Beggar’s fame). He is faithful to Ovid: the drama is have to envisage his ‘capacious mouth’. Of course, the instrumentalists play an equally simple and uncluttered but yet subtly emotional and dramatic. I very much regard personal role. I am in total awe of how Sarah and Dan can sound as one, achieving it as a transition from the masques of Henry Purcell to the full scale oratorios of similar electricity and virtuosity, Hannah’s sensual and intensely musical oboe, Sarah Handel and thus the perfect entertainment to put a spotlight on the wonderful relishing in Handel’s inspirationally comic recorder writing and Joe and Imogen singers and instrumentalists I have within The Sixteen. I have kept true to Handel’s providing a string bass line that is constantly at one with the action around them. original troupe. When he first performed it at Cannons, the estate of James Brydges, Duke of Chandos, he had at his disposal five singers, so only one voice per part, and I feel very pleased to have such talent in front of me; I hope this album conveys the about seven instrumentalists: two violins, two oboes, who also doubled on recorder, abundant enjoyment we had recording it. two cellos and continuo. I have taken the liberty of using my full continuo section which has been so much a part of The Sixteen’s sound world for many years: the unique pairing of David Miller’s archlute with Frances Kelly’s harp, Joe Crouch

2 3 CD2 ACT TWO (49.40) (1685-1759) 1 Chorus Wretched lovers! 4.06 2 Accompagnato POLYPHEMUS I rage — I melt — I burn! 1.14 Acis and Galatea 3 Air POLYPHEMUS O ruddier than the cherry 3.03 (c. 1718) 4 POLYPHEMUS, Whither, fairest 1.03 A Serenata or Pastoral Entertainment GALATEA by John Gay and others, after Ovid’s Metamorphoses, XIII 5 Air POLYPHEMUS Cease to beauty to be suing 5.18 6 Air CORIDON Would you gain the tender creature 4.57 CD1 ACT ONE (39.23) 7 Recitative ACIS His hideous love 4.52 1 Sinfonia 3.20 Air ACIS Love sounds th’alarm 8 2 Chorus O, the pleasure of the plains! 5.41 Air DAMON Consider, fond shepherd 6.34 9 3 Accompagnato GALATEA Ye verdant plains 0.44 Recitative GALATEA Cease, oh cease 0.26 bl 4 Air GALATEA Hush, ye pretty warbling quire! 6.11 Trio GALATEA, ACIS, The flocks shall leave the mountains 2.18 POLYPHEMUS 5 Air ACIS Where shall I seek the charming fair? 3.31 bm Accompagnato ACIS Help, Galatea! 1.16 6 Recitative DAMON Stay, shepherd, stay! 4.41 bn Air DAMON Shepherd, what art thou pursuing? Chorus Mourn, all ye ! 3.11 bo 7 Recitative ACIS Lo, here my love 6.20 Solo & Chorus GALATEA Must I my Acis still bemoan 4.09 Air ACIS Love in her eyes sits playing Recitative GALATEA ’Tis done! bp 8 Recitative GALATEA Oh, didst thou know the pains 5.57 Air GALATEA Heart, the seat of soft delight 3.48 Air GALATEA As when the dove bq Chorus Galatea, dry thy tears 3.12 9 Duet GALATEA, ACIS Happy we! 2.51 Total Running Time, 2 CDs 89.03

4 5 for his initial interest in the story was still, being given just one aria to a text by The metamorphoses ofAcis and Galatea Giovanni Bononcini’s one-act work, another member of the Cannons circle, , as it was written and performed John Hughes. It seems Gay et al also vid’s Metamorphoses was a in 1600 and, most famously, by in 1703, during Handel’s sojourn in Italy. drew from the Ovidian story via John O significant source of inspiration Monteverdi as L’ O r f e o in 1607. Handel’s first setting of the tale, as Aci, Dryden’s English translation, The Story to painters, poets and Galatea e Polifemo, was undertaken five of Acis, Polyphemus and Galatea, which musicians alike. Ovid’s emphasis on The tale of Acis, Galatea and years later, when he visited Naples in was published in 1717. The publication magical transformations – particularly Polyphemus was another Ovidian piece June 1708, probably as a commission of Dryden’s translation may indeed those of one party amongst would-be – seemingly invented by him – that had from the Duchess of Laurenzano for the have partly been the impetus for the lovers – appealed especially to creators been set several times before Handel wedding of her niece. work. The performance venue might of opera, where both the passion of love came to it. Given his interest in French also have provided inspiration: Brydges’ (often unrequited) and the spectacle of opera (Handel’s overtures, most notably, Handel returned to the story in 1718, lavish building works at Cannons in transformation created opportunities show French influence), Handel may when he was working and living at this period included garden works, for musical and scenic display. Thus have known Jean-Baptiste Lully’s 1686 the house of James Brydges, 1st Duke incorporating then-fashionable water , the tale of ’s pursuit of Acis et Galatée. Of more recent vintage of Chandos, at the palatial estates he features and a jet d’eau. Although it is the and his transformation of was John Eccles and P. A. Motteux’s Acis built at Cannons, where he established not certain where, within the Cannons her into a tree when she continues to and Galatea (1701), which was written an artistic circle to rival those of the estate, the work was first performed, the reject his advances, was what is today for the English spoken-drama theatre, Italian courts. Another of that artistic popular tradition that it was performed considered the first opera, in 1598 (by Drury Lane, and revived regularly into group then based at Cannons, John Gay, on the terrace immediately outside ). The story of Eurydice the 1720s; to cater for English popular seems chiefly to have provided the text the house and overlooking the garden and was the next (where tastes and ‘make the piece the more for this one-act pastoral drama (though might suggest the garden redesign had a metamorphoses are effected on multiple dramatical’, it included a quarrelling it is uncertain how much of the libretto role in the work’s choice and production. levels by Orpheus’s song, which in peasant couple, Roger and Joan. This is his). It initially featured just the three particular recalls Eurydice fleetingly was unlikely to have been a model for main characters, but then had Damon Other inspiration may have come from from death to life); it was set by Peri as Handel, however; a more likely prompt added, while Coridon was inserted later the tradition of English pastoral works

6 7 that had recently graced the and Galatea, which, from the lack of such music – oboes and recorders a taste of gallantry appropriate to more stage. Aside from Eccles and Motteux’s stage directions in either the autograph – throughout the work; the Earl of heroic roles at this time. Acis’s friend, Acis and Galatea, Congreve’s Judgment or other early surviving copies, appears Carnarvon almost certainly had to hire Damon, advises him to abandon of (set by a number of composers), to have been unstaged, but performed a second oboe in specially, though the the pursuit over a walking bass that Thomas Addison and Thomas Clayton’s before a painted backdrop, and with oboists would have doubled as recorder suggests Acis’s ‘heedless running’ Rosamund (1707), Congreve and all the singers on stage at all times (as players, as these instruments alternate. continues unabated. Galatea’s return Eccles’ (1707), John Hughes and no entrances or exits are marked). As Markings in the autograph seem prompts Acis’s sighing ‘Love in her eyes J.E. Galliard’s and Telemachus in the Italian tradition, the soloists to indicate that the continuo group sits playing’, and Galatea’s reciprocal ‘As (1712), and Colley Cibber and J. took the chorus parts, the names ‘Mr would have included a double bass when the dove’, which has the flavour Pepusch’s and Adonis (1715), Blackley’, ‘Mr Row’ and ‘Hardres’ being (or an equivalent instrument), but no of English folk song to it. Indeed, all had followed in the pastoral mode, indicated against the three tenor parts bassoon. The work opens with a lively of the airs for the two main characters setting tales of mythological romantic in the first chorus; however, the only overture with bucolic obbligato oboe in this first part, despite their da capo entanglements in verdant landscapes. soloists recorded were James Blackley giving way to a chorus with strings, designation, belong in their short- Winton Dean suggests a direct model in as Acis and Francis Rowe as Damon oboes and then voices duetting in - breathed, mostly conjunct themes and this line for Handel and Gay would have (presumably ‘Hardres’ sang Coridon). effect over a bass drone. The lovers are musical simplicity to an English rather been Hughes and Pepusch’s Apollo and introduced in succession, Galatea’s than an Italianate tradition. (1716), which (being another Despite the varied influences visible ‘Hush, ye pretty warbling quire!’ the first tale of metamorphosis) similarly ends in the libretto and available to Handel of many triple-time airs (unusually, The duet‘Happy we!’, which in the with the transformation of the desired musically, unusually, the composer over half the numbers in the piece version most often performed today lover into an inanimate feature of newly set almost the entire piece, are in triple time), and continues the marks the end of the first act, in the the landscape; indeed Pepusch, like borrowing only briefly from earlier echo theme in her duet with an octave original leads straight into the old- Hughes, was also part of the Cannons vocal and instrumental works – all recorder, representing the warbling fashioned chorus ‘Wretched lovers!’, circle of artists. The intimacy of these Italian. The music for the work is birds. As she leaves, Acis enters from which introduces a change in tone by simple mythological and pastoral works certainly suitably pastoral, using the other side to sing his more formal ushering in the cyclops Polyphemus. was certainly apparent in the 1718 Acis instruments considered markers of ‘Where shall I seek the charming fair?’, All the airs thus far have been simple

8 9 in vocal style, befitting the pastoral ‘Would you gain the tender creature’, lovers’ duet, ‘The flocks shall leave the local musical societies. It is somewhat mode, but Polyphemus provides both offers advice to Polyphemus, while mountains’, but rapidly becomes a trio surprising, then, that it was not until humour and a crude menace. His two- Damon subsequently seeks to deter Acis with Polyphemus arriving to dispatch 1731 that the work was performed and-a-half-octave range and alternately from pursuit in ‘Consider, fond shepherd’ Acis. The chorus of mourning that on stage in London, as a benefit for a leaping and melismatic vocal style (following Acis’s battle cry, ‘Love sounds follows, along with Galatea’s air (with singer. This first performance inspired reflected a long-standing tradition th’alarm’, returning to his opening chorus), ‘Must I my Acis still bemoan’, a staging the following year, mounted for bass singers in a variety of serious heroic gesture, though still without casts a sombre tone on the end of the by the aspiring young composer and repertoire. But while the seventeenth the vocal display one would expect work. Galatea’s final air, ‘Heart, the seat operatic entrepreneur, Thomas Arne, century admired the virtuoso bass, in from contemporary Italian opera). It of soft delight’, is then a welcome return and offered as a ‘Pastoral Opera . . . as the eighteenth century he was seen as is not surprising that Coridon’s aria to the pastoral mode, with its flowing it was perform’d before his Grace the rather tasteless and treated as a figure was assigned to Damon in subsequent quavers depicting the fountain into Duke of Chandos at Cannons’. This in of fun: here that versatility is turned performances, as together they give which she has transformed Acis. turn seems to have galvanised Handel to comic effect, beginning with ‘O Damon’s character a little more life, himself into a public performance, but ruddier than the cherry’, which creates and almost make him operatically How successful this work was we do not one that trumped Arne both in range a grotesque bathos (so beloved of the Machiavellian (although such know, but the story of Acis and Galatea of material and size of ensemble. Some period) by the simple act of setting characterisation is not further fleshed did not end at Cannons. Indeed, it measure of the work’s success in all Polyphemus’s banal Renaissance similes out). Coridon’s solitary appearance achieved longevity in large part because its iterations can be found not only in (‘ruddier than the cherry’, ‘nymph more in the pastoral is thus all too easily of its relative brevity and simplicity, and its repeated performance by various bright than moonshine night’) to the erased – he does not appear in modern the limited cast it required (only five non-professional groups around the accompaniment of the octave recorder. editions either. After Coridon and singers and seven instrumentalists in country, but also in its professional Polyphemus’s following air, ‘Cease to Damon’s brief appearances, the focus its 1718 version). It was published in re-orchestrations by, among others, beauty to be suing’, similarly combines returns to the principal couple, as Acis’s 1722, but had already been performed Mozart and Mendelssohn, in which threat in its sinuous accompaniment ambition to challenge Polyphemus, around the country in what we might versions it is still performed today. and humour in the word-painting on despite Galatea’s pleading (‘Cease, now call ‘amateur’ performances ‘ever whining’. Coridon’s single aria, oh cease’), leads to what begins as a since 1719. It remained popular with © Suzanne Aspden, 2018

10 11 Air Damon 8 Recitative Galatea Shepherd, what art thou pursuing? Oh, didst thou know the pains of Acis and Galatea Heedless running to thy ruin; absent love, Share our joy, our pleasure share, Acis would ne’er from Galatea rove. CD1 ACT ONE Leave thy passion till tomorrow, Let the day be free from sorrow, Air Galatea 1 Sinfonia 4 Air Galatea Free from love, and free from care! As when the dove Hush, ye pretty warbling quire! Shepherd… Laments her love, 2 Chorus Your thrilling strains All on the naked spray; O, the pleasure of the plains! Awake my pains, When he returns, Happy and happy swains, And kindle fierce desire. 7 Recitative Acis No more she mourns, Harmless, merry, free and gay, Cease your song, and take your flight, Lo, here my love, turn, Galatea, But loves the live-long day. Dance and sport the hours away. Bring back my Acis to my sight! hither turn thy eyes! Billing, cooing, For us the zephyr blows, Hush… See, at thy feet the longing Acis lies. Panting, wooing, For us distills the dew, Melting murmurs fill the grove, For us unfolds the rose, Air Acis Melting murmurs, lasting love. And flow’rs display their hue. 5 Air Acis Love in her eyes sits playing, As when… For us the Winters rain, Where shall I seek the charming fair? And sheds delicious death; For us the Summers shine, Direct the way, Love on her lips is straying, 9 Duet Galatea, Acis Spring swells for us the grain, kind genius of the mountains! And warbling in her breath! Happy we! And Autumn bleeds the wine. O tell me, if you saw my dear! Love on her breast sits panting What joys I feel! O, the pleasure… Seeks she the grove, And swells with soft desire; What charms I see or bathes in crystal fountains? No grace, no charm is wanting, Of all youths/nymphs thou dearest boy/ 3 Accompagnato Galatea Where… To set the heart on fire. brightest fair! Ye verdant plains and woody mountains, Love in her eyes… Thou all my bliss, thou all my joy! Purling streams and bubbling fountains, 6 Recitative Damon Happy… Ye painted glories of the field, Stay, shepherd, stay! Vain are the pleasures which ye yield; See, how thy flocks in yonder valley stray! Too thin the shadow of the grove, What means this melancholy air? Too faint the gales, to cool my love. No more thy tuneful pipe we hear.

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CD2 ACT TWO Galatea Air Acis Of infant limbs to make my food, Love sounds th’alarm, And swill full draughts of human blood! And fear is a-flying! 1 Chorus Like kidlings blithe and merry. Go, monster, bid some other guest! When beauty’s the prize, Wretched lovers! Fate has past Ripe as the melting cluster, I loathe the host, I loathe the feast. What mortal fears dying? This sad decree: no joy shall last. No lily has such lustre; In defence of my treasure, Wretched lovers, quit your dream! Yet hard to tame I’d bleed at each vein; Behold the monster Polypheme! As raging flame, 5 Air Polyphemus Without her no pleasure, See what ample strides he takes! And fierce as storms that bluster! Cease to beauty to be suing, For life is a pain. The mountain nods, the forest shakes; O ruddier… Ever whining love disdaining. Love sounds… The waves run frighten’d to the shores: Let the brave their aims pursuing, Hark, how the thund’ring giant roars! Still be conqu’ring not complaining. 4 Recitative Polyphemus Cease.. 8 Air Damon Whither, fairest, art thou running, Consider, fond shepherd, 2 Accompagnato Polyphemus Still my warm embraces shunning? How fleeting’s the pleasure, I rage – I melt – I burn! 6 Air Coridon That flatters our hopes The feeble god has stabb’d me to the heart. Galatea Would you gain the tender creature, In pursuit of the fair! Thou trusty pine, The lion calls not to his prey, Softly, gently, kindly treat her: The joys that attend it, Prop of my God-like steps, I lay thee by! Nor bids the wolf the lambkin stay. Suff’ring is the lover’s part. By moments we measure, Bring me a hundred reeds of decent growth Beauty by constraint possessing But life is too little To make a pipe for my capacious mouth; Polyphemus You enjoy but half the blessing, To measure our care. In soft enchanting accents let me breathe Thee, Polyphemus, great as Jove, Lifeless charms without the heart. Consider… Sweet Galatea’s beauty, and my love. Calls to empire and to love, Would you… To his palace in the rock, To his dairy, to his flock, 9 Recitative Galatea 3 Air Polyphemus To the grape of purple hue, 7 Recitative Acis Cease, oh cease, thou gentle youth, O ruddier than the cherry, To the plum of glossy blue, His hideous love provokes my rage. Trust my constancy and truth, O sweeter than the berry, Wildings, which expecting stand, Weak as I am, I must engage! Trust my truth and pow’rs above, O nymph more bright Proud to be gather’d by thy hand. Inspir’d with thy victorious charms, The pow’rs propitious still to love! Than moonshine night, The god of love will lend his arms.

14 15 bl Trio Galatea & Acis bn Chorus Chorus The flocks shall leave the mountains, Mourn, all ye muses! Weep, all ye swains! To kindred gods the youth return, Acis Jeremy Budd tenor The woods the turtle dove, Tune, tune your reeds to doleful strains! Through verdant plains to roll his urn. Galatea Grace Davidson soprano The nymphs forsake the fountains, Groans, cries and howlings Polyphemus Stuart Young bass Ere I forsake my love! fill the neighb’ring shore: Recitative Galatea Damon Mark Dobell tenor Ah, the gentle Acis is no more! ’Tis done! Thus I exert my pow’r divine; Coridon Simon Berridge tenor Polyphemus Be thou immortal, though thou art not Torture! fury! rage! despair! bo mine! I cannot, cannot bear! Solo & Chorus Galatea THE SIXTEEN Must I my Acis still bemoan, Inglorious crush’d beneath that stone? bp Violin I Galatea & Acis Air Galatea Sarah Sexton Not show’rs to larks so pleasing, Heart, the seat of soft delight, Nor sunshine to the bee, Chorus Be thou now a fountain bright! Violin II Not sleep to toil so easing, Cease, Galatea, cease to grieve! Purple be no more thy blood, Daniel Edgar Bewail not whom thou canst relieve. As these dear smiles to me. Glide thou like a crystal flood. Cello Rock, thy hollow womb disclose! Joseph Crouch Galatea Polyphemus The bubbling fountain, lo! it flows; Imogen Seth-Smith Fly swift, thou massy ruin, fly! Must the lovely charming youth Through the plains he joys to rove, Die, presumptuous Acis, die! Die for his constancy and truth? Murm’ring still his gentle love. Oboe / Recorder Hannah McLaughlin Chorus Sarah Humphries Cease, Galatea, cease to grieve! bm Accompagnato Acis bq Chorus Theorbo Bewail not whom thou canst relieve; Help, Galatea! Help, ye parent gods! Galatea, dry thy tears, David Miller And take me dying to your deep abodes. Call forth thy pow’r, employ thy art, Acis now a god appears! Harp The goddess soon can heal thy smart. See how he rears him from his bed, Frances Kelly See the that binds his head. Galatea Hail! thou gentle murm’ring stream, Organ / Harpsichord Say what comfort can you find? Shepherds’ pleasure, muses’ theme! Alastair Ross For dark despair o’erclouds my mind. Through the plains still joy to rove, Murm’ring still thy gentle love.

16 17 Jeremy Budd tenor Stuart Young bass Born in Hertfordshire, Jeremy started out as a chorister at St Paul’s Stuart Young has been singing with The Sixteen since 2008 and has Cathedral in London before going on to study at the Royal Academy of participated in many of their tours around the world including visits Music. Since finishing his studies he has been much in demand on the to South Korea, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand and regularly concert platform predominantly for his repertoire. Jeremy has in the Choral Pilgrimages across the UK. He appears as a soloist on a worked with many of the foremost conductors in this field including number of The Sixteen’s recordings including Selva Morale e Spirituale Sir , Harry Christophers, Paul McCreesh, John by Monteverdi, Saul by Handel and Purcell’s The Indian Queen and Butt, Bernard Labadie and Jeffrey Skidmore. has recorded various other Purcell and Monteverdi works over the Photograph: Roxene Anderson Roxene Photograph: past few years. Solo performances have included the title role in Notable performances have included a tour of Monteverdi’s Vespers of Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Verdi’s Requiem, ’s Feast by Walton, 1610 with Harry Christophers and The Sixteen, an abridged performance of Bach’sSt Matthew Dream of Gerontius by Elgar, Bach’s St Matthew Passion and Ein Deutsches Requiem by Brahms. Passion in collaboration with Streetwise Opera and The Sixteen, the Evangelist in Bach’sSt Matthew Passion at Symphony Hall with Jeffrey Skidmore and Ex Cathedra, Monteverdi’s Stuart graduated in music from the University of Exeter and went on to study as a postgraduate Madrigals with Jonathan Cohen and Arcangelo in Saffron Hall, Purcell’s King Arthur with at the Royal Academy of Music with Mark Wildman and Audrey Hyland. Besides his work Paul McCreesh and also a programme of Purcell Odes in the Wigmore Hall. Recently Jeremy with The Sixteen, Stuart has performed and recorded with many ensembles including The has also performed Gibbons’ Verse Anthems with Fretwork and toured Bach’s Christmas Monteverdi Choir, The Cardinall’s Musick, The Choir of Westminster Abbey, The Gabrieli Oratorio with Masaaki Suzuki and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. Consort, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Exaudi and The King’s Consort. He is also a Vicar Choral in St Paul’s Cathedral Choir under the direction of Andrew Carwood. Grace Davidson soprano Grace Davidson is an English soprano who specialises in the Mark Dobell tenor performance and recording of Baroque music. She won the Early Music Originally from Tunbridge Wells in Kent, Mark Dobell was a choral Prize while studying singing at the Royal Academy of Music. Since then, scholar of Clare College, Cambridge, where he read Classics. He later she has worked with leading Baroque ensembles of our day, singing studied as a postgraduate at the Royal Academy of Music, and was under the batons of Sir John Eliot Gardner, Paul McCreesh, Philippe awarded the Clifton Prize for the best final recital. Photograph: Nick Smith Nick Photograph: Herreweghe and Harry Christophers. Her discography includes a Mark has worked as a soloist all over the world with renowned decade of CDs with The Sixteen, many of which feature her as soloist conductors including Harry Christophers, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Sir and include Handel’s Jephtha (as Angel) and Dixit Dominus, Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 and Roger Norrington and Sir James MacMillan. His extensive concert and oratorio repertoire ‘Pianto della Madonna’ from the Selva morale e spirituale and Bach’s Lutheran Masses. She has includes many of the major works of Handel, Bach and Mozart, as well as pieces by composers also recorded Fauré’s Requiem with the London Symphony Orchestra on the LSO Label and her as varied as Monteverdi, Haydn, Mendelssohn, Britten, Jonathan Dove and Karl Jenkins. Pie Jesu was described as ‘matchless’ by Richard Morrison on BBC Radio 3’s Building a Library.

18 19 Mark can be heard on numerous recordings. Most notably he is featured as a soloist on The Harry Christophers Sixteen’s recordings of Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 and Mozart’s Solemn Vespers (recorded Harry Christophers stands among today’s great champions of choral live at the Barbican), as well as Durante’s Requiem and Howard Goodall’s Invictus with music. In partnership with The Sixteen, the ensemble he founded almost Christ Church Cathedral Choir, Oxford. Other solo recordings include repertoire by Pelham 40 years ago, he has set benchmark standards for the performance of Humfrey, Purcell, Bruckner, Holst, Sir James MacMillan and Roderick Williams. everything from late medieval polyphony to important new works by contemporary composers. His international influence is supported Simon Berridge tenor by more than 150 recordings and has been enhanced by his work as Simon Berridge was born in Hertfordshire and went on to pursue his Artistic Director of Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society and as guest Photograph: Marco Borggreve Marco Photograph: music studies at Trinity College, Cambridge. He subsequently studied conductor worldwide. voice as a postgraduate at the Royal College of Music. The Sixteen’s soundworld, rich in tonal variety and expressive nuance, reflects Christophers’ Simon has worked with many of the leading British ensembles including determination to create a vibrant choral instrument from the blend of adult professional singers. The Sixteen. He has also worked with several European ensembles Under his leadership The Sixteen has established its annual Choral Pilgrimage to cathedrals, including Collegium Vocale of Gent and Les Arts Florissants. churches and other UK venues, created the Sacred Music series for BBC television, and developed an acclaimed period-instrument orchestra. Highlights of their recent work include His solo performances have included Messiah with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, an Artist Residency at Wigmore Hall, a large-scale tour of Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610, and Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 at the BBC Proms and Edinburgh Festival, Bach’s Magnificat in the world premiere of Sir James MacMillan’s Stabat mater; their future projects, meanwhile, the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Handel’s Israel in Egypt in the Festival with The comprise a new series devoted to Purcell and an ongoing survey of Handel’s dramatic oratorios. Sixteen, Bach’s St Matthew Passion in the London Handel Festival and the St John Passion (Evangelist and arias) performed live on Spanish Radio in the National Auditorium. Harry has served as Artistic Director of the Handel and Haydn Society since 2008. He was also appointed as Principal Guest Conductor of the City of Granada Orchestra in 2008 Simon’s operatic roles have included ‘Sandy’ in The Lighthouse by Peter Maxwell Davies, ‘The and has worked as guest conductor with, among others, the London Symphony Orchestra, Madwoman’ in Curlew River by Benjamin Britten, and the ‘Auctioneer’ in The Rake’s Progress. the BBC Philharmonic, the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra and the Deutsches Kammerphilharmonie. Christophers’ extensive commitment to opera has embraced productions for English National Opera and Lisbon Opera and work with the Granada, Buxton and Grange Park festivals. He was appointed a CBE in the Queen’s 2012 Birthday Honours for his services to music. He is an Honorary Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, as well as the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, and has Honorary Doctorates in Music from the Universities of Leicester, Canterbury Christ Church and Northumbria.

20 21 The Sixteen gave its first concert in 1979 under the direction of Founder and Conductor Harry Christophers CBE. Their pioneering work since has made a profound impact on the performance of choral music and attracted a large new audience, not least as ‘The Voices of Classic FM’ and through BBC television’s Sacred Music series. The voices and period-instrument players of The Sixteen are at home in over five centuries of music, a breadth reflected in their annual Choral Pilgrimage to Britain’s great cathedrals and sacred spaces, regular appearances at the world’s leading concert halls, and award-winning recordings for The Sixteen’s CORO and other labels.

Photograph: © Benjamin Ealovega © Benjamin Photograph: Recent highlights include the world premiere of James MacMillan’s Stabat mater, commissioned for The Sixteen by the Genesis Foundation, an ambitious ongoing series of Handel oratorios, and a debut tour of China.

Recording Producer: Mark Brown Recording Engineer: Mike Hatch (Floating Earth) Recorded at: Church of St Augustine’s, Kilburn, London, 25-27 June 2018 Cover image: Statue of Acis and Galatea – Medici Fountain, Jardin du Luxembourg, Paris, France. © Ken Felepchuk / Alamy Stock Photo Design: Andrew Giles: [email protected]

2019 The Sixteen Productions Ltd. © 2019 The Sixteen Productions Ltd. The Sixteen Made in Great Britain For further information about recordings on CORO or live performances and tours by Whether performing a simple medieval hymn or expressing the complex musical and The Sixteen, call: +44 (0) 20 7936 3420 or email: [email protected] emotional language of a contemporary choral composition, The Sixteen does so with qualities common to all great ensembles. Tonal warmth, rhythmic precision and immaculate Many CORO recordings are also available as studio master quality downloads at intonation are clearly essential to the mix. But it is the courage and intensity with which The www.thesixteen.com Sixteen makes music that speak above all to so many people.

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