CORO CORO Sounds Sublime The Flowering of Genius The Essential Collection (2CD set) Tallis, Byrd, Some of the most celebrated recordings Guerrero, Victoria from Harry Christophers and his award-winning “The Sixteen’s sound is ensemble, these discs distilled, ethereal – provide a definitive hard to imagine a more collection of familiar sublime performance.” Great classics and lesser-known bbc music magazine treasures. cor16001 cor16073 British The Fairy Queen Blest Cecilia Purcell (2CD set) Britten Choral Works Volume 1 Choral “A performance like “A disc of exceptional this shows dimensions quality, reinforcing of Purcell's genius The Sixteen's reputation that are all too rarely as one of the finest heard on disc.” choirs of our day.” Works gramophone gramophone cor16005 cor16006 The Sixteen To find out more about The Sixteen, concert tours, and to buy CDs visit HARRY CHRISTOPHERS www.thesixteen.com cor16092 Great British Choral Works t is often said that the British choral tradition is second I to none. Not only have our great cathedral and collegiate choirs set the standards which the rest of the world strives to emulate, but also our composers have constantly been at the forefront of innovation and progress. On this compilation, we take you from the groundbreaking music of the 1500’s, via the great baroque music of Purcell and Handel, right through to the modern day with Tavener and MacMillan. We have taken a little licence with the word “choral” and included some exquisite solo items to give the album variety and to show off the amazing musicianship of soloists such as Messrs Chance, George and Padmore who have played such an important role in The Sixteen’s evolution. Photograph: Marco Borggreve Marco Photograph: 2 3 1 G. F. Handel Coronation Anthem: My heart is inditing 2.49 Great British Choral Works 2 William Byrd Laudibus in sanctis 5.12 sk any music-lover who the great with each other is portrayed in the music 3 James MacMillan A Child’s Prayer 4.01 Kirsty Hopkins, Grace Davidson sopranos British classical choral composers they champion. There is absolutely no haveA been through the centuries and doubt that this disc is ‘Made in Britain’! 4 Thomas Tallis Spem in alium 9.38 the answer will include many of the 5 Sir John Tavener Today the Virgin 2.46 composers represented on this disc. The same cannot entirely be said for George 6 William Cornysh Ave Maria Mater Dei 3.47 Famous names such as Tallis, Byrd, Purcell, Frideric Handel, born in Halle, Germany, 7 Robert Carver Benedictus (from Missa Dum sacrum mysterium) 5.31 Handel (firmly British for the purposes in 1685 before moving to England and of this compilation), Britten, Tavener, eventually becoming a British subject in 8 Henry Purcell One charming night (from The Fairy Queen) 2.25 and MacMillan all appear here. Harry 1727. His legacy is extraordinary, and he Michael Chance alto Christophers and the individual members is represented on this disc by three tracks. 9 Henry Purcell Hush, no more (from The Fairy Queen) 4.06 of The Sixteen have been accustomed My heart is inditing, one of the Coronation Michael George bass to performing from the enormous body Anthems, was composed to accompany bl G. F. Handel Tune your harps to cheerful strains 3.54 of British choral music from their early the crowning of Caroline, King George II’s (from Esther HWV 50a, 1718 version) Mark Padmore tenor years. Harry started singing every day as Queen, in 1727. Charming, stately, with bm Benjamin Britten Hymn to St Cecilia 10.40 a boy chorister at Canterbury Cathedral, a trumpets and timpani adding lustre to bn Sir Michael Tippett Nobody Knows 1.28 musical upbringing similar to that enjoyed the dancing violin semi-quavers, Handel's (from Five Spirituals from A Child of Our Time) by many of the members of The Sixteen music caught the right mood for the bo John Sheppard Media vita in morte sumus (Excerpt) 8.00 past and present in the various cathedrals occasion at Westminster Abbey perfectly. and chapels up and down Britain. They bp James MacMillan A new song 5.16 do ‘Britishness’ very well, from living and Much has been written of William Byrd’s Christopher Glynn organ breathing the music to the way in which unswerving adherence to the Catholic bq G. F. Handel Worthy is the Lamb that was slain (from Messiah HWV 56) 3.31 they work together. The choir is full of Church in contravention to the faith of the br G. F. Handel Amen (from Messiah HWV 56) 3.44 great characters who are also great friends Crown. Byrd was Master of Music at the Total running time 77.57 and the joy they experience in working Chapel Royal and received a monopoly 4 5 to print music from Queen Elizabeth usual ‘Sixteen’ together for a recording – in which they intended to be heard, and Fairy Queen. Hearing almost anything I (along with Tallis). At the same time and, we have to assume, a party. Tallis had so cannot be included on this single from Purcell makes one wish he had lived Byrd’s family was being fined again an extraordinary career which spanned disc. They are well worth discovering. beyond his short life (1659–95). and again for failure to attend church four 16th century monarchs whose William Cornysh’s Ave Maria Mater Dei, but his talent as a composer left them religious views alternated. He changed his sung by male voices, is the Choirbook’s Tune your harps to cheerful strains from largely unmolested. The Latin motet compositions accordingly, so that we are representative here. Cornysh was part of Esther (originally to have been called Laudibus in sanctis is a brilliant piece in left with large Latin motets as well as small the court of Henry VIII, and we know his The Oratorium) is certainly a hidden three sections full of invention, weaving English-language anthems. music reached as far north as Stirling, the gem amongst Handel’s output, and in vocal lines and bouncing rhythms befitting home of the Scottish court. Music in large- contrast to the splendid premieres of the text (a paraphrase of psalm 150) and John Tavener (b.1944) has also composed scale was also being written in Scotland at the Coronation Anthems may have every bit as fantastic to sing as to hear. pieces of huge length as well as tiny roughly the same time, notably by Robert received its first performance in the small miniatures. On discs such as this we must Carver. Editing the Missa Dum sacrum church of St Lawrence, Whitchurch. The Above calls of ‘welcome’, sopranos Kirsty turn to the smaller-scale works. Today the mysterium was an enormous job for one instrumentation, of pizzicato strings, oboe Hopkins and Grace Davidson begin James Virgin is a joyful carol in which Joseph, of The Sixteen’s longest serving sopranos, and tenor, is delightful and shows Handel MacMillan’s A Child’s Prayer, written looking at Mary’s swelling belly, asks her Sally Dunkley, and her wonderful work at his inventive best in using new colours in response to the heart-wrenching ‘what do I see?’. Her reply is simple: ‘do can be heard on this disc in the Benedictus from a fairly small-scale orchestral palette. tragedy in Dunblane in 1996 in which not fear’! Many of Tavener’s compositional from the Mass. It has incredible vocal lines As with Handel’s other pieces on this sixteen schoolchildren and a teacher were techniques can be heard here, from requiring some very large breaths! album the aria is a masterclass in how to massacred. MacMillan’s skill in enhancing sustained pedal notes to repetition, and more spin out a short text in music which lasts the text of a poem with his music is to the than a nod to Orthodox church music. The middle of this disc is inhabited by star four minutes; and it is of course a pleasure fore in this beautiful piece which leaves soloists frequently heard on discs with the to listen to Mark Padmore and oboist the listener reflecting on faith and loss. The Sixteen’s project to record five CDs choir: Michael Chance, Michael George Anthony Robson enjoying the beautifully of music from the Eton Choirbook, the and Mark Padmore – the last of whom melodic lines. One of the most famous legacies of the late 15th century collection of English spent the first ten years of his career as a Renaissance is Thomas Tallis’s monumental sacred music, was ground-breaking. Many regular member of The Sixteen. Messrs Benjamin Britten’s choral music has been Spem in Alium, composed for 40 parts, of the pieces were composed on as large Chance and George sing One charming recorded in three volumes by The Sixteen. and a lovely way of bringing more than the an architectural scale as the buildings night and Hush, no more from Purcell’s The Hymn to St Cecilia, a setting of a 6 7 poem by W.H. Auden, was partly written Here Sheppard expertly brings human on a ship in the Atlantic in 1942 as Britten frailty to musical life with his setting of ‘In Harry Christophers returned from the USA in wartime. 1942 the midst of life we are in death’. Harry Christophers is known internationally as founder and using a poem by W. H. Auden. The range conductor of The Sixteen as well as a regular guest conductor for of colours and moods in this piece, named The second piece by James MacMillan on many of the major symphony orchestras and opera companies for the patron saint of music, is staggering this disc is A New Song, a paraphrase of worldwide.