CORO The Sixteen Edition Other Sixteen Edition The Voices of Angels Music from the Eton Choirbook, Volume V recordings available on Coro cor16002 Iste Confessor "Foreigners were astonished at the quality The Sacred Music of of English choirs. Theirs Domenico Scarlatti cor16003 were "the voices of angels", a tribute which "Outstanding... astonishing The Sixteen deserves no stylistic and expressive range." less today." bbc music magazine classic cd The Flowering of Genius The Fairy Queen Guerrero, Tallis, Purcell Byrd, Victoria 2cd set cor16001 cor16005 "The Sixteen's sound is "A performance like this distilled, ethereal - shows dimensions of hard to imagine a more Purcell's genuis that are all sublime performance." too rarely heard on disc." bbc music magazine gramophone Gramophone magazine said of The Sixteen's recordings "This is what recording should be about...excellent performances and recorded sound...beautiful and moving." Made in Great Britain For details of discs contact The Sixteen Productions Ltd. 00 44 1869 331544 or see www.the-sixteen.org.uk; e-mail [email protected] N TheThe Sixteen Sixteen InEver December since I was 1977, a boy, as a Imember have had of BENJAMINcq PreludeBRITTEN (1913-1976) cs Two Chinese Women thea passion choir offor Westminster the music of Abbey, Henry I Britten was above all a composer for the voice. If AldeburghAnd Hymen Parish Church. A Hymn of St. sangPurcell at Britten’sbut there memorial was one particular service; choralcr Hymen music is not(Richard quite asSuart) central to his output as Columba, for four-part choir with organ, starts off theperiod Antiphon of my waslife thatthe anthemmade me and opera or solo song, it nonetheless occupies a withThey firm shall unison be as happywriting, as like they’re both fair; the Festival Te See, see I obey. Walteraware of Hussey, his real who greatness. commissioned consistently important place, from the work that Deumlove shalland fillthe all Jubilate the places. It was of composedcare. in 1962 to Blest My torch has long been out. I hate The Fairy RejoiceSoon in theafter Lamb I left, gaveuniversity, the first made him famous, A Boy was Born, to his last celebrateAnd every the time 1,400th the sunanniversary shall display of Columba’s On loose dissembled vows to wait, Address.I was lucky I never enough had to the become privilege a completed composition, Welcome Ode (he was voyagehis rising from light, Ireland to Iona off the west of QueenCecilia ofmember meeting of BenjaminEnglish Music Britten Theatre, but I workingWhere on hardly another love choral outlives piece, the Praise We Great Scotland.it shall be Hymn to them to St.a new Peter wedding, which sharesday, the Soprano felt I knew him through his music. Menwedding, when night;he died). In his operas and in his counterpointand when he ofsets, English a new and nuptial Latin night. with Hymn to AN OPERA IN 5 ACTS successor to the disbanded English Fiona Clarke, Libby Crabtree, It had taken England many orchestralFalse flames, song love’scycles, meteors, Britten was yield something my of a the Virgin, was written for the quincentenary of BY HENRY PURCELL (1659-1695) Opera Group, which was the A Chinese man and woman dance. Ruth Dean, Micaela Haslam, centuriesbrainchild to of produce conductor, such Steuart a pioneer,torch no creating light. a national tradition for opera the Church of St Peter Mancroft, Norwich, in Carys Lane, Rebecca Outram, distinctive musical personality. Libretto by an anonymous Bedford and producer, Colin whereSix China none properlyorange trees, existed. growing In his in choral large porcelainmusic, 1955. The words are from the Gradual of the Feast *Sophie Daneman, *Nicola Jenkin, Indeed there would be many that would agree with me ct author after William Shakespeare’s Graham under the presidency of Benjamin Britten. onvases the otherand laden hand, with he was glowing working fruit, within rise from an of StChaconne Peter and St Paul, and the music is based on *Nicola-Jane Kemp that he was the first of such stature since Henry Purcell. established tradition; for voices in chorus, from the plainsong ‘Tu es Petrus’, which is sung at the A Midsummer Night’s Dream It was to prove an exciting existence and one under the stage. cu Alto production,Having insung particular, most of thatthe works delighted on this audiences disc as alla boy amateur madrigal groups to cathedral choirs, have end, Chorus to its Latin text, by a solo soprano, while the chorister and as a rather indifferent tenor, I found it THEDeborah SIXTEEN Miles-Johnson, over the world was Purcell’s Fairy Queen. I knew then always been the foundation of British musical life, chorusThey shall chants be theas happy same words… in English. most refreshing to look over these scores from a TWO CHINESE WOMEN ThePhilip Symphony Newton, of Christopher Harmony Royall, that one day I wanted to perform this opera myself. and the masterpieces of British music, at least In the Antiphon, which Britten wrote for the conductor’s viewpoint. I am always astounded how years Turn then thine eyes upon those glories there, andNigel Invention Short, *Helen Templeton, Purcell’s use of the English language is second to before the twentieth century, have mostly been centenary of St Michael’s College, Tenbury, the of misguided interpretation lead to the composer’s And catching flames will on thy torch appear. End *Caroline Trevor none but it is the magic, wit and sensuality of his music choral. Britten’s own choral music grows naturally first lines of George Herbert’s poem, ‘Praised be Conductor intentions being flagrantly ignored and then termed Tenor that captured my imagination. And so we spent the out of these past traditions, to which he was the God of Love / Here below / And here above’, Harry Christophers “tradition” but I didn’t really expect it in performances HYMEN Simon Berridge, Philip Daggett, happiest week of our recording life in St Bartholomew’s strongly attached and of which he had a deep suggestedRecording Producer: to him three Mark Browntypes of contrasting music: of more recent composers’ works. And so it was doubly Recording Engineer: Antony Howell Neil MacKenzie, Matthew Vine, Orford (a church often used by Britten on his beloved knowledge.My torch Itsindeed novelty will and from freshness such results from a florid unison phrase for the first line, deep refreshing to attempt to be faithful to Britten’s requests. pianissimoRecorded at St.triads Bartholomew’s for ‘Here Church, below’ Orford, and a Suffolksoprano *Peter Burrows, Suffolk coast), resulting in this recording of Purcell’s Britten’sbrightness brilliantly shine; imaginative response to the texts Recorded from the Novello Purcell Society edition His music is never easy but it is always challenging solo for ‘And here above’, which Britten directs to *Duncan MacKenzie, Fairy Queen. For everyone concerned with this project, heLove chose ne’er to set had (choices yet such which altars were so divine.always original at pitch A=415 for performers, be they singers or instrumentalists. and inventive) and especially his exploitation of beDesign: sung Richard if possible Boxall from Design a Associatesgallery. This antiphonal *Nicolas Robertson fond memories abound. However, and take note all budding composers, he never their dramatic potential. writingCover photograph: continues Matthew throughout, Power with a final Bass sets impossible tasks! Cover image: Reflection of the Mercury Fountain Hymn to the Virgin was written in 1930 when repeatedin Tom Quad, alternation Christ Church, of a highOxford. F major ‘one’ and a Simon Birchall, Robert Evans, Britten was a schoolboy and revised for publication low ascending ‘two’, which come together in the Timothy Jones, Jeremy White, CORO The Sixteen Edition in 1934. He had found the text in The Oxford Book last The bar. Sixteen Productions 2002 *Michael Bundy, *Roger Cleverdon of English Verse, which he had received as a school © TheThe Sixteen early Productions Te Deum 2002of 1934, very much in C Organ prize. The writing for eight-part unaccompanied major,www.thesixteen.com is a straightforward piece, obviously written Margaret Phillips For translations of the texts, choir is antiphonal throughout, a semichorus of withplease due contact regard [email protected] for the capabilities of the church soloists echoing each of the main choir’s phrases. choiror telephone (St Mark’s, 00 44 1869 North 331 544 Audley Street in London) *HYMN TO ST. CECILIA ONLY The hymn was sung at Britten’s funeral service in who commissioned it. Britten set the Jubilate Deo 2 319 PagePage XX2 PagePage XX19 PMS PMS 000 000 01 text in 1961 at the request of HRH The Duke of were written in a succession of changing metres 1 A HYMN TO THE VIRGIN 2 A HYMN OF SAINT COLUMBA Edinburgh, who had suggested that he should - 5/8, 7/8, 4/4 - quite independent of the organ’s write some music for St George’s Chapel, constant 3/4. Closer inspection, however, would 1930, REV.1934. TEXT: ANON. C.1300 1962. ATTRIB. TO ST COLUMBA (521-597) Windsor Castle: this was the only piece that have revealed that the apparent difficulties had Of one that is so fair and bright ENGLISH SETTING BY JOHN ANDREWES resulted. Britten designed it to follow his 1934 Te practical solutions: Britten always challenged his Velut maris stella, Deum, with which it shares the key of C major performers, but never set them impossible tasks. Brighter than the day is light Regis regum rectissimi and a central, more contemplative middle section, Much of the choral writing of the Te Deum is in Parens et puella: Prope et dies domini, in E major in the Jubilate, in A in the Te Deum.