CORO CORO STAR · OF · HEAVEN Padre Pio: Prayer cor16071 O Guiding Night cor16090 The Eton Choirbook Legacy Remarkable works O’Regan, Williams, commissioned Byrchmore. by the Genesis “A fascinating project: Foundation from the same three texts James MacMillan, set by three different Roxanna Panufnik composers but all and Will Todd. mesmerized by this “The Sixteen’s poetry’s ecstatic performance here conjunction of agape comes across as mightily assured and and eros, love sacred and love profane.” ardently convincing.” bbc music magazine choir & organ James MacMillan: Spirit, Strength & Sorrow Stabat mater cor16150 cor16127 “It’s stunningly Firsova, Kõrvits, Martin composed and “Three new responses also magnificently to the [Stabat mater] performed... under text... are sung here Harry Christophers’s with faultless clarity inspired direction.” by The Sixteen.” the times the observer
To find out more about The Sixteen, concert tours, and to buy CDs visit www.thesixteen.com cor16166 The Sixteen | HARRY CHRISTOPHERS first met John Studzinski in 2006 and from this moment began a fruitful, chose three composers representing totally different backgrounds and cultures: Imeaningful and, above all, inspirational collaboration with John and the Genesis Alissa Firsova, Tõnu Kõrvits and Matthew Martin (COR16127). This particular Foundation. Every project since has emanated from John’s devotion to the Catholic project culminated in James MacMillan’s masterpiece, premiered at the Barbican faith and his love of the wonderful poetry which encapsulates Christianity, as well in October 2016 with us and the Britten Sinfonia and reached its pinnacle when as his laudable mission to promote and nurture young talent. At Pope Benedict we performed it in April 2018 in the Sistine Chapel, a deeply profound and highly XVI’s inauguration in 2005, the Pope said: ‘… sacred polyphony constitutes a emotional experience which none of us will ever forget (COR16150). heritage that should be preserved with care, kept alive and made better known, for the benefit not only of the scholars and specialists but of the ecclesiastical And so to the present. The Eton Choirbook is the largest and most valuable community as a whole. An authentic updating of sacred music can take place only document of early Tudor church music still in existence, and without it, the music in the lineage of the great tradition of the past, of Gregorian chant and sacred of its age would have been plunged into near obscurity. The fact that it survived the polyphony.’ Triggered by the then Pope’s wish to reform music in the Catholic Reformation is nothing short of a miracle. It is housed in Eton College, it is vast, church worldwide, John and I put together a template to commission three it is beautiful and the music contained in it is quite spectacular. There is one work composers from contrasting backgrounds to present atmospheric and mystical in particular which stands out from the rest and that is Robert Wylkynson’s nine- works that would enhance the church music repertoire both for the divine service part Salve Regina. Each of the nine parts are labelled according to their angelic as well as the concert repertoire. rank (Seraphs, Cherubs to Angels). It was clearly the most performed work in the choirbook as the bottom corners of the parchment are well worn. What better In 2008, James MacMillan, Roxanna Panufnik and Will Todd were commissioned work to depict this remarkable legacy and bring this incredible heritage into the to write settings of Padre Pio’s Prayer Stay with me, Lord (COR16071). Three modern day? years later we were rewarded with works by Ruth Byrchmore, Tarik O’Regan and Roderick Williams, setting to music St Teresa’s prayer Nada te turbe (Let nothing Our Eton project not only looks back to the great works of the Eton Choirbook, the trouble you) and the poem by St John of the Cross En una noche oscura (One sumptuous texts and the sheer miracle of its survival, but also looks forward to three Dark Night) (COR16090). In 2014 we embraced the Stabat mater, without doubt new commissions based on some of those wonderful texts. It also includes a new the most powerful poem of the liturgy and one which has inspired composers work by James MacMillan based on a six-bar fragment from the Eton Choirbook through the ages, yet which in recent times has seldom been set to music. We by Wylkynson and Angelo Poliziano’s 1493 poem O virgo prudentissima. The three
2 3 new commissions by Phillip Cooke, Marco Galvani and Joseph Phibbs are settings of Ave Maria, mater Dei, Stella caeli and Nesciens mater whose original settings by 1 Plainsong Nesciens mater 0.41 William Cornysh and Walter Lambe we have also included on this album. Our aim 2 Walter LAMBE (1450-1504) Nesciens mater 4.19 is to raise awareness of the Eton Choirbook and its legacy on sacred music and to 3 Joseph PHIBBS (b.1974) Nesciens mater * 4.28 provide the choral world with some wonderful new music. However, it is not good enough for commissions simply to have a premiere and then sink into obscurity: 4 William CORNYSH (1465-1523) Ave Maria, mater Dei 3.19 they must reach as wide and diverse an audience as possible. Through our own 5 Phillip COOKE (b.1980) Ave Maria, mater Dei * 6.17 record label CORO, we have ensured that all our projects have been recorded for 6 Sir James MacMILLAN (b.1959) O Virgo prudentissima * 12.43 commercial release and in that way they stand every chance of enduring life. 7 Walter LAMBE Stella caeli 6.27 Finally, I have decided to include on this disc another work commissioned by 8 Marco GALVANI (b.1994) Stella caeli * 6.01 the Genesis Foundation which I believe fits well with the rest of our programme. 9 Robert WYLKYNSON (c.1450-1515) Salve Regina 14.05 Stephen Hough’s Hallowed was written for the British Museum’s ‘Living with Gods’ exhibition and we gave its premiere in the Parthenon Gallery earlier this year. It is a stunning exploration of faith worldwide. Stephen HOUGH (b.1961) Hallowed * bl In blessing (Genesis 22: 17-18) 1.35 Our renewed thanks to the Genesis Foundation for so often making the impossible possible. bm Staying the night in a mountain temple 1.20 bn Song of the Earth 2.22 bo Pater Noster (Matthew 6: 9-13) 3.18
Total running time 66.57 * Commissioned by the Genesis Foundation
4 before an image of Mary, and sing an in statues, paintings, or embedded The Eton Choirbook Legacy antiphon in her honour. The choice in window glass. That same image The Eton Choirbook is famous – the opposite; every institution that of words could change according to is invoked by Walter Lambe’s serene and important – because it uniquely maintained a talented chapel choir had the season or circumstances, but they five-voice Nesciens mater. This piece preserves some of the most spectacular equivalent books. The Chapel Royal, always addressed Mary. However, few may have been written for the choir music composed in Britain before the the household chapels of the nobility, pieces copied into the Eton Choirbook of St George’s Chapel, Windsor, where age of Purcell and Handel. Had this book the choirs of cathedrals and colleges were written expressly with Eton Lambe was a singer. not survived, literally dozens of superb such as Eton’s institutional twin, King’s College in mind. On the contrary, their pieces would have been irretrievably College, Cambridge, all had such composers largely worked elsewhere, at By comparison, William Cornysh’s lost; among them would have been books. But most of them have vanished palaces, cathedrals or collegiate chapels, Ave Maria, mater Dei has its eye the ones by Walter Lambe, William without trace, either wilfully destroyed where similar services took place. This fixed on the darker subjects of human Cornysh and Robert Wylkynson at the Reformation, or discarded as fact should remind us (if memory sin, mortality and judgement. It prays performed here. As it happens, the Eton musical fashions changed. Even the could fail on such a fundamental point) to Mary for her guidance and mercy. Choirbook is also physically impressive, Eton Choirbook is now badly damaged, just how central the Virgin Mary was Around 1500 there were two musicians being expertly hand-copied in black and lacks a third of its contents. But the to medieval European religious belief, named William Cornysh, possibly and red ink on thick parchment leaves remains are thrilling, and we are lucky just as she remains to some Christian father and son. If Ave Maria, mater and, when placed on a lectern, large to have them. communities today. Dei is correctly by Cornysh Senior, enough to be read simultaneously by a as seems likely, then this setting was dozen singers. But there are many other Eton College is dedicated to the The texts of these antiphons vary probably written for the Lady Chapel grand medieval manuscripts. Only the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin in their focus. ‘Nesciens mater’, for choir at Westminster Abbey, which he Eton Choirbook contains this equally Mary, and its early statutes are quite instance, savours the mystery and directed. If by Cornysh Junior, then grand music. explicit about how the choirbook was miracle of the virgin birth, a subject its original destination would have meant to be used. Every evening at constantly in view in late medieval been the choir of the Chapel Royal. Around the year 1500, when the book Vespers, a small choir of boys and men English churches, where images of the This piece is scored for men alone, in was made, it was not so unique. Quite was to gather in the nave of the chapel Virgin and child were often to be seen four parts. 6 7 The text of ‘Stella caeli’ has a more so on. In medieval depictions of the bore, without pain, the Saviour of the specific purpose: it prays to Mary Assumption of the Virgin, Mary is world’) – acts as a hushed refrain. for protection against plague. In late traditionally shown surrounded by the My setting of O virgo prudentissima medieval Europe, the outbreak of angelic host, which makes music in her The work uses a fairly simple musical is based on a tiny fragment from the bubonic plague was especially feared honour as she ascends into heaven. In idiom, and was composed with an Eton Choirbook by Robert Wylkynson. because of its capacity to kill whole Wylkynson’s nine-voice Salve, it is as if amateur choir in mind. We hear the melodic fragments, but communities. There was an outbreak we eavesdrop on that heavenly choir. in a cloud of closed-mouth sounds of plague in Windsor in 1479, the year Joseph Phibbs from some of the singers. Gradually when Walter Lambe joined the choir of © 2018 John Milsom the material blossoms into more fully St George’s Chapel. Possibly his four- fledged phrases. The humming sounds Ave Maria, mater Dei is a setting of voice Stella caeli was written around are still used at various points as a the text set so imaginatively by William that time. textural accompaniment to the more Cornysh in the Eton Choirbook. My This short setting of the Nesciens mater melodic material. work takes the text and uses it in a With Robert Wylkynson’s Salve was written as a companion piece to rhapsodic fashion with two off-stage Regina we arrive at a work that was the celebrated work of the same name Passages of chorale-like homophony trebles augmenting the main choir. The composed not only for Eton, but also by Walter Lambe (1450-1504) which alternate with more flexible polyphony, text Ave Maria, mater Dei is used as a at Eton; Wylkynson was a member appears in the Eton Choirbook. In in an attempt to evoke ancient musical refrain throughout the piece moving memories. The humming becomes of the college’s choir. Most unusually, contrast to the Lambe, whose textures back and forth from off-stage to main this setting is scored for a huge nine- are generally contrapuntal and flowing, choir providing a narrative framework a feature in the middle of the piece, voice ensemble. Its rationale is made this is a meditative, prayerful, and for the whole work. when sopranos and altos create a plain by the Eton Choirbook itself: often homophonic response to this heterophonic haze, under which the each of the nine singing parts has been nativity text, the opening line of which Ave Maria, mater Dei is dedicated to Sir tenors and basses are more emphatic. prefaced by an illuminated capital – ‘Nesciens mater virgo virum, peperit James MacMillan, with many thanks. letter showing one of the nine orders sine dolore salvatorem, saeculorum’ High, hummed chords float down of angels – seraphim, cherubim, and (‘Knowing no man, the virgin mother Phillip Cooke towards a recapitulation of the 8 9 opening materials, some more I wanted to combine this large-scale have a similar sense of arch narrative, with an exquisite poem by Li Bai soprano heterophony and a final, musical form with a sense of dramatic flowing through the text in a single from eighth century China depicting joyous Alleluia! narrative. I was drawn to the beginning movement which encompasses both someone at the top of a temple tower, of the third verse as a natural high the meditative and dramatic aspects of close to the stars, in silence fearing to Sir James MacMillan CBE point of tension (‘O glorious star of the each stanza. disturb the people in heaven. Then sea, come to save us from this plague’). moving westwards to a joyful Navajo For this section of the text, I wanted to Marco Galvani Indian text celebrating the unity of create a texture in which all the voices creation with an ecstatic, mantra-like Stella caeli is a motet for of the choir come together to plead to repetition of the words: ‘all is beautiful’. unaccompanied SATB choir written the Virgin Mary (‘Hear us, for your son And finally the Lord’s Prayer of Christ in response to Walter Lambe’s setting in respect’). This type of setting, which Commissioned for, and inspired by from the New Testament, sung in of the same anonymous text, which is largely moves in chords, contrasts the The British Museum’s Living with Latin in the traditional plainchant but included in the Eton Choirbook. reflective writing at the beginning of Gods exhibition, Hallowed is a short moving through different keys and the piece. For the final two lines of sequence of sacred settings celebrating accompanied by a rapt repetition of When composing the piece I was struck the text, the smooth melismatic vocal the universality of the human Abraham’s blessing from the opening. by the nature of the text, which pleads lines are interspersed with a gradually experience and expression of religious both to the Virgin Mary and Jesus for descending chord pattern, and the wonder and awe. Stephen Hough salvation from the ‘deadly plague’ of built-up energy of the climactic music sin. My way of embedding the text in dies down. We begin with the book of Genesis – the musical material was by creating a Abraham as the common father for musical cryptogram of the words Stella These two types of choral textures Jews, Christians and Muslims. ‘I will caeli. This motif can be heard in the (horizontal melodic lines and vertical bless thee’, declares God. Thy children opening bars of the piece, while also chord patterns) are used to great like stars in the sky and sand on the determining the large-scale harmonic dramatic effect in Walter Lambe’s seashore, a blessing for all nations of structure of the piece. setting of this text. I wanted my piece to the earth. We then turn eastwards 10 11 1 Plainsong Nesciens mater 5 Phillip COOKE Ave Maria, mater Dei Nesciens mater virgo virum Knowing no man, the virgin mother Soli (off stage): Julie Cooper, Emilia Morton soprano peperit sine dolore bore, without pain, See Track 4 for text salvatorem saeculorum. the Saviour of the world. Ipsum regem angelorum Him, the king of angels, sola virgo lactabat, only the virgin suckled, ubera de caelo plena. breasts filled by heaven. 6 Sir James MacMILLAN O virgo prudentissima Soli: Julie Cooper soprano 2 Walter LAMBE Nesciens mater Joshua Cooter (1), Simon Berridge (2), Jeremy Budd (3), George Pooley (4) tenor 1 O virgo prudentissima, Most prudent maiden, See Track for text quam caelo missus Gabriel, the heavenly herald supremi regis nuntius, of the most-high King, Gabriel, plenam testatur gratia. bears witness that you are full of grace. 3 Joseph PHIBBS Nesciens mater Te sponsam factor omnium, A wife to the inventor of all things, See Track 1 for text te matrem Dei Filius, a mother to the son of the divine, te vocat habitaculum a dwelling to the blessed spirit, suum beatus spiritus. you are called. 4 William CORNYSH Ave Maria, mater Dei Tu stella maris diceri; It is said you are a star of the sea, Ave Maria, Mater Dei, Hail Mary, Mother of God, quae nobis inter scopulos, uncovering our sanctuary of salvation Regina caeli, Domina mundi, Queen of heaven, Mistress of the world, inter obscuros turbines between the cliffs Imperatrix inferni: Empress of hell: portum salutis indicas. and amongst the hidden whirlpools. Miserere mei et totius populi Christiani, have mercy on me and on all Christ’s people, Per te de taetro carcere Through you our venerable forefathers Et ne permittas nos mortaliter peccare and let us not fall into mortal sin antiqui patres exeunt; can escape their foul prison; Sed tuam sanctissimam voluntatem adimplere. but let us fulfil your most holy will. per te nobis astriferae it is through you that for us Amen. Amen. panduntur aulae limina. the doorsteps of the starry temple will be uncovered.
12 13 Audi, virgo puerpera, Take notice, child-bearing virgin 8 Marco GALVANI Stella caeli et sola mater integra; and sole mother who stays untouched, audi precantes, quaesumus, listen to your young servants praying, See Track 7 for text tuos Maria servulos. we ask you, Mary.
Repelle mentis tenebras, Dispel gloom from our minds, disrumpe cordis glaciem. shatter the ice in our hearts. 9 Robert WYLKYNSON Salve Regina Nos sub tuum praesidium Guard us, confugientes protege. taking refuge under your protection. Salve Regina, mater misericordiae, Hail, O Queen, mother of mercy, Alleluia. Alleluia. vita, dulcedo et spes nostra, salve. our life, our sweetness and our hope, hail. Translation by Trajan Halvorsen Ad te clamamus, To you we cry, OS Eton Sixth Former exsules filii Evae. exiled children of Eve. 7 Walter LAMBE Stella caeli Ad te suspiramus, To you we sigh, gementes et flentes in hac lacrimarum valle. as we mourn and weep in this valley of tears. Stella caeli exstirpavit A star of heaven, Eia ergo, advocata nostra, Ah then, our advocate, quae lactavit Dominum she who suckled the Lord, illos tuos misericordes oculos turn those merciful eyes of yours mortis pestem quam plantavit rooted out the deadly plague ad nos converte, et Jesum, upon us; and Jesus, primus parens hominum. which mankind’s first father planted. benedictum fructum ventris tui, the blessed fruit of your womb, nobis post hoc exsilium ostende. show to us after our exile here. Ipsa stella nunc dignetur May this star now be gracious sidera compescere, and restrain the heavens, Virgo mater ecclesiae, Virgin mother of the church, quorum bella plebem caedunt whose attacks bring our people low aeterna porta gloriae, everlasting gate to glory, dirae mortis ulcere. with fierce and deadly wounds. esto nobis refugium be our refuge apud Patrem et Filium. before the Father and the Son. O gloriosa stella maris O glorious star of the sea, a peste succurre nobis; come to save us from this plague: O clemens! O gentle! audi nos, nam te Filius hear us, for your Son in respect Virgo clemens, virgo pia, Gentle virgin, loving virgin, nihil negans honorat. will never deny your prayer. virgo dulcis o Maria, O sweet virgin Mary, Salva nos Jesu pro quibus Save us, Jesus, for whom exaudi preces omnium hear the prayers of all virgo mater te orat! your virgin mother pleads to you! ad te pie clamantium. who humbly cry to you. 14 15 O pia! O loving! bn Song of the Earth Funde preces tuo nato, Pour out prayers to your Son, Solo: Charlotte Mobbs soprano crucifixo, vulnerato, the crucified, the wounded, All is beautiful. And the night of darkness And the corn-pollen et pro nobis flagellato, scourged for our sake, All is beautiful. And the dawn of light, And the Ripener, spinis puncto, felle potato. pierced with thorns, given gall to drink. All is beautiful, indeed. Meeting, joining one another, Meeting, joining one another, O dulcis Maria, salve! O sweet Mary, hail! Helpmates ever, they. Helpmates ever, they. Now the Mother Earth All is beautiful etc. All is beautiful etc. And the Father Sky, Meeting, joining one another, And the white corn Life-that-never-passeth, Stephen HOUGH Hallowed Helpmates ever, they. And the yellow corn, Happiness-of-all-things, All is beautiful etc. Meeting, joining one another, Meeting, joining one another, bl In blessing (Genesis 22: 17-18) Helpmates ever, they. Helpmates ever, they. All is beautiful etc. All is beautiful etc. In blessing I will bless thee, Now all is beautiful. and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed All is beautiful. as the stars of heaven, All is beautiful, indeed. and as the sand which is upon the seashore. bo Pater Noster (Matthew 6: 9-13) Navajo Indian text In thy seed shall all nations of the earth be blessed. Solo: Ben Davies bass Pater noster qui es in caelis, Our Father in heaven, bm Staying the night in a mountain temple sanctificetur nomen tuum. hallowed be your name. Adveniat regnum tuum. Your Kingdom come, Solo: Jeremy Budd tenor Fiat voluntas tua, your will be done, The high tower one hundred feet, sicut in caelo et in terra. on earth as in heaven. One can pluck stars. Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie, Give us today our daily bread. I do not dare to speak in a loud voice, et dimitte nobis debita nostra sicut Forgive us our sins, Fear to disturb the people of heaven. et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris. as we forgive those who sin against us. Li Bai Et ne nos inducas in tentationem, Lead us not into temptation, sed libera nos a malo. but deliver us from evil. 16 17 Sir James MacMillan (b.1959) Marco Galvani (b.1994) Sir James MacMillan is one of today’s most successful Marco Galvani is a composer based in London, whose composers and is also internationally active as a compositions are published with Edition Peters. Marco has conductor. His musical language is flooded with been commissioned by the Royal Philharmonic Society, influences from his Scottish heritage, Catholic faith, Classic FM, Genesis Foundation and the Southern Cathedrals social conscience and close connection with Celtic Festival. ‘Tantum Ergo’ was broadcast on BBC Radio 3 from folk music, blended with influences from Far Eastern, the Edington Festival, and features on ‘Cloths of Heaven’,
Scandinavian and Eastern European music. Woerd Hans van der Photograph: the debut album by Sansara Chamber Choir, with whom Galvani is Associate Composer. In 2017, his commission ‘On MacMillan’s prolific output includes The Confession of Isobel Gowdie, Veni, Veni, Christmas Morn’ was performed throughout the UK by The Sixteen on their Christmas Emmanuel, a cello concerto for Mstislav Rostropovich and four symphonies. Recent tour in venues such as Cadogan Hall, Sage Gateshead, Glyndebourne, and Symphony major works include his Percussion Concerto No.2 for Colin Currie and his Stabat mater. Hall in Birmingham. MacMillan enjoys a flourishing career as conductor of his own music alongside a range of contemporary and standard repertoire, praised for the composer’s insight he brings to each score. In October 2014 MacMillan founded his music festival, The Cumnock Joseph Phibbs (b.1974) Tryst, which takes place annually in his native Ayrshire. MacMillan was awarded a CBE Joseph Phibbs has been described as ‘one of the most in 2004 and a Knighthood in 2015. successful composers of his generation’ (BBC Music Magazine). His works have been championed by leading Phillip Cooke (b.1980) conductors including Edward Gardner, Gianandrea Noseda, Phillip Cooke was born in the Lake District in 1980. His Sakari Oramo, Vassily Petrenko, Esa-Pekka Salonen, and works have been performed by many of the country’s leading Leonard Slatkin, and have been commissioned by orchestras choirs and ensembles and he has won competitions in the including the Philharmonia, LSO, and BBC Symphony UK, Europe and USA. His work has been broadcast regularly Orchestra, for which he has written five major works to date. on BBC Radio 3, 4 and Classic FM and various recordings Recent works include a chamber opera Juliana (2018 Cheltenham/Presteigne Festivals), featuring his work are currently available. He co-edited a book and his String Quartet No.3 for the Belcea Quartet (Carnegie Hall, 2018). of essays on Herbert Howells in 2013 and is currently writing the first major study of James MacMillan’s music which will be published in 2019. He is Head of Music at the Phibbs’s works are published by Ricordi London and Boosey and Hawkes. University of Aberdeen. 18 19 Stephen Hough (b.1961) Harry Christophers Stephen Hough is one of the most distinctive artists of Harry Christophers stands among today’s great champions of his generation, combining a distinguished career as a choral music. In partnership with The Sixteen, the ensemble pianist with those of composer and writer. A laureate he founded almost 40 years ago, he has set benchmark of the MacArthur Fellowship and Royal Philharmonic standards for the performance of everything from late
Society Award winner, his catalogue of over 60 CDs Jiyang Chen Photograph: medieval polyphony to important new works by contemporary has garnered accolades including eight Gramophone composers. His international influence is supported by more
Awards. His celebrated iPad app The Liszt Sonata than 150 recordings and has been enhanced by his work as Borggreve Marco Photograph: was released by Touch Press in 2013. As a composer, Artistic Director of Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society and as he has been commissioned by Wigmore Hall, Musée du Louvre, London’s National guest conductor worldwide. Gallery, Westminster Abbey, Westminster Cathedral, the Genesis Foundation, Gilmore The Sixteen’s soundworld, rich in tonal variety and expressive International Keyboard Festival, and the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet. Hough nuance, reflects Christophers’ determination to create a vibrant was appointed CBE in the 2014 New Year’s Honours. choral instrument from the blend of adult professional singers. Under his leadership The Sixteen has established its annual Choral Pilgrimage to cathedrals, churches and Recording Producer: Mark Brown other UK venues, created the Sacred Music series for BBC television, and developed Recording Engineer: Mike Hatch (Floating Earth) an acclaimed period-instrument orchestra. Highlights of their recent work include Recorded at: Church of St Augustine’s, Kilburn, London, 29-31 May 2018 an Artist Residency at Wigmore Hall, a large-scale tour of Monteverdi’s Vespers of Cover image: ‘The creation of heaven and the stars’. Mosaic, late 12th century, from 1610, and the world premiere of James MacMillan’s Stabat mater; their future projects, Monreale Cathedral, Sicily. © Granger / Bridgeman Images meanwhile, comprise a new series devoted to Purcell and an ongoing survey of Handel’s Design: Andrew Giles: [email protected] dramatic oratorios. 2018 The Sixteen Productions Ltd. Harry has served as Artistic Director of the Handel and Haydn Society since 2008. He © 2018 The Sixteen Productions Ltd. Made in Great Britain was also appointed as Principal Guest Conductor of the City of Granada Orchestra in For further information about recordings on CORO or live performances and tours by 2008 and has worked as guest conductor with, among others, the London Symphony The Sixteen, call: +44 (0) 20 7936 3420 or email: [email protected] Orchestra, the BBC Philharmonic, the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra and the Many CORO recordings are also available as studio master quality downloads at Deutsches Kammerphilharmonie. Christophers’ extensive commitment to opera has www.thesixteen.com embraced productions for English National Opera and Lisbon Opera and work with the Granada, Buxton and Grange Park festivals. 20 21 He was appointed a CBE in the Queen’s 2012 Birthday Honours for his services to The voices and period-instrument players of The Sixteen are at home in over five music. He is an Honorary Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, as well as the Royal centuries of music, a breadth reflected in their annual Choral Pilgrimage to Britain’s great Welsh College of Music and Drama, and has Honorary Doctorates in Music from the cathedrals and sacred spaces, regular appearances at the world’s leading concert halls, Universities of Leicester and Canterbury Christ Church. and award-winning recordings for The Sixteen’s CORO and other labels.
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.
Whether performing a simple soprano Julie Cooper tenor Simon Berridge medieval hymn or expressing the Photograph: Adrian Myers Adrian Photograph: Sally Dunkley # Jeremy Budd complex musical and emotional Camilla Harris # Joshua Cooter language of a contemporary Katy Hill Jonathan Hanley * choral composition, The Sixteen Kirsty Hopkins George Pooley does so with qualities common Charlotte Mobbs Benjamin Vonberg-Clark * to all great ensembles. Tonal Emilia Morton warmth, rhythmic precision and Members of The Sixteen with the Eton Choirbook Ruth Provost bass Ben Davies immaculate intonation are clearly essential to the mix. But it is the courage and Eamonn Dougan intensity with which The Sixteen makes music that speak above all to so many people. alto Ian Aitkenhead Nathan Harrison * Daniel Collins Tim Jones Edward McMullan Rob Macdonald The Sixteen gave its first concert in 1979 under the direction of Founder and Conductor Kim Porter Angus McPhee * Harry Christophers CBE. Their pioneering work since has made a profound impact Stuart Young * 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. # Track 5 only * Tracks 6 & 9 only
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