What would singing be without words? When you combine wonderful poetry with exquisite music, the result is magical. In a rare break from the sacred collections they are famed for, this album from The Sixteen features a whole program of secular music devoted to English partsongs. From Stanford’s cycle of Eight Partsongs based on the sparing yet infectious poetry of Mary Elizabeth Coleridge to Bridges’ lyrically descriptive writing in Finzi’s Seven Poems of Robert Bridges and Imogen Holst’s six idyllic partsongs Welcome Joy and Welcome Sorrow using verses by John Keats, each setting captures the mood of the poem brilliantly.
Coronation - Music for Royal Occasions / Christophers, The Sixteen
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$10.99$21.99Save 50%Apr 07, 2023
Coronation – Music for Royal Occasions spans 500 years of royal music – for celebration, for prayer and for commemoration – varying in scale from private devotion to full state coronation. The collection, featuring Tallis, Byrd, Gibbons, Purcell, Tippett and Britten, looks forward to the coronation of Charles III, and back to the ancient rituals of royal ceremonial. It also presents a new work, commissioned by the Genesis Foundation, from celebrated composer Cecilia McDowall commemorating the life of Queen Elizabeth II and celebrating her remarkable reign. Of course no such collection would be complete without examples from the four anthems Handel wrote for the coronation of George II at Westminster Abbey in 1727, of which Zadok the Priest has been performed at the coronation of every British monarch since. Much has changed since their first performance almost 300 years ago. Yet their dramatic impact and grandeur, underlined by mighty choral acclamations and regal trumpets and drums, remains supremely fit for the coronation of a new king.
There are certain texts which inspire composers more than others but there is one in particular that has provided us with sublime music ever since it appeared centuries ago—the Agnus Dei. This collection from The Sixteen celebrates some of the finest settings from the Renaissance through to the 20th century. Let time stand still whilst listening to the arching melismas and subtle imitation of settings by Tye and Sheppard; delight in the genius of Bach’s setting in the Mass in B minor; and revel in Poulenc’s soaring soprano solo at the opening to his Agnus Dei—so poignant, ethereal and effortlessly beautiful. Of course no collection of this type would be complete without Samuel Barber’s Agnus Dei—probably one of the most famous settings ever written, certainly in recent times, and which rarely leaves a dry eye. From Tallis to Scarlatti and Rubbra to Britten, the variety of settings and musical language featured here is quite astounding and you may even discover an Agnus Dei that you haven’t heard before!
Monteverdi: Messa a quattro voci el Salmi of 1650 / Christophers, The Sixteen
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$10.49$20.99Save 50%Apr 06, 2018
Monteverdi’s sacred vocal compositions introduced the expression of powerful and personal emotions to the world of church music. While it took him a number of years to find fulfillment in his work, Monteverdi was a revered composer within his lifetime and his music is regarded as revolutionary, marking the change from the Renaissance style to that of the Baroque. This album includes some of the finest works from Monteverdi’s years as director of music at St Mark’s in Venice, published posthumously in 1650 as the ‘Messa a quattro voci et salmi.’ “Pure- and vintage- Monteverdi, starting with a Dixit Dominus and ending, grandly with a version of Beatus Vir, using material we know from the familiar one. Ideal consort singing.” (The Sunday Times) “As always with The Sixteen, we get superb tuning, balanced ensemble work and a lively pace.” (BBC Music Magazine)
Monteverdi: Messa a quattro voci et salmi of 1650, Vol. 1 / Christophers, The Sixteen
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$10.49$20.99Save 50%May 27, 2016
The music of Monteverdi is revolutionary, heralding in the Baroque era. For the first time, with Monteverdi’s compositions, deep personal emotion was being heard in sacred vocal works. This collection was released after the composers death as the Messa a Quattro voci et salmi, and was composed during Monteverdi’s time serving as director of music at St. Mark’s in Venice. The Sixteen has gained critical acclaim for their previous recordings of Monteverdi’s work, including a Grammy nomination for the ensemble’s 2014 recording of Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610.
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REVIEW:
There is no shortage of first-rate music here, dispelling any notion that the Messa et Salmi only consists of pieces that Monteverdi himself did not think were worthy of preserving for posterity. The Sixteen’s performances have the group’s usual unfussy directness; the sound has no churchy over-resonance about it, either, so that the intricacies of the writing are always perfectly clear.
Imitation is the ultimate compliment. To take inspiration from someone else’s work, to borrow and rework it to form another piece…what could be more flattering? This technique, known as ‘parody’, was hugely popular in late 16th-century Europe and Orlande de Lassus was one of its most famous advocates. The Sixteen’s programme showcases the master of parody at work and also features a new commission from the extraordinarily inventive composer Bob Chilcott parodying one of Lassus’ finest secular madrigals.
Also included are two mini masterpieces by Maddalena Casulana - the first female composer to have had a whole book of her music printed and published in the history of western music and whose work was widely admired, not least by Lassus.
The five new choral works on this album – by James MacMillan, Will Todd, Anna Semple, Eoghan Desmond and Lisa Robertson – all grew from a meditation by St John Henry Newman. Newman was a theologian of towering stature and broad influence and his meditation resonates with great clarity in our present age of the re-evaluation of what we can and cannot do without, and of the profound human need for a sense of meaning and purpose. Canonized in October 2019, Newman's writings represent a rich and thought-provoking legacy and, alongside the new works presented, are immortalized in three well-known hymns and Sir Edward Elgar’s exquisite elegy 'They are at rest'. Also included are two of Elgar’s psalm settings – Great is the Lord and Give unto the Lord. These are monumental works for choir and organ, full of grandeur and drama, but also inherently simple. The album ends with a ’Bonus’ track by Bob Chilcott - also a Genesis Foundation commission - based on Psalm 139.
MacMillan: Stabat Mater / Christophers, The Sixteen, Britten Sinfonia
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Few living composers communicate with the emotional directness of Sir James MacMillan and his belief that "beauty is at the heart of our Christian faith" is profoundly present in his new setting of the Stabat mater. Arguably one of the most powerful poems in the liturgy, only a small number of composers have tackled the Stabat Mater in the last 30 years and the musical world has waited a long time for a substantial setting. In James MacMillan's version we are witness to a new and intensely personal work which encapsulates the power of the poem in a way no other composer has done to date. Harry Christophers writes: "James digs deep underneath the surface of this 13th century Marian hymn meditating on Mary's suffering as she stands at the foot of the cross. He speaks of 'a painful world of loss, violence and spiritual desolation' and the score is packed to the full with those intense feelings. Our collaboration with the Britten sinfonia on this project has been a marriage made in heaven - both groups have had long associations with James's music and both give of their all in bringing this score to life." Sir James MacMillan writes: "It was a great delight and honour to respond to The Sixteen...I regard Harry Christophers' choir as one of the great choirs of the world and their standards of vocal brilliance and blend are unsurpassed."
Conducted by The Sixteen’s Associate Conductor, Eamonn Dougan, this release is the fourth volume in this critically acclaimed series. This installment explores the music of Italian composers who lived and worked within the Polish court during Sigismund III Vasa’s reign. When Sigismund III began to reorganize his music ensembles in 1594, he modeled his new structure after the chapels of Rome, and thus brought in several highly esteemed Italian musicians. Some of these notable musicians included Luca Marenzio, Asprillo Pacelli, and Vincenzo Bertolusi. The arrival of these composers heralded a new age of sacred Polish music. Most notable on this release is Marenzio’s magnificent Missa super Iniquos odio habui. While the Kyria and Gloria movements remained, the other parts of the Mass went missing after World War II, and have only been rediscovered since the fall of the Berlin Wall. This is the world premiere recording of the Mass in its entirety.
Over four centuries separate these two representatives of English music at it's finest. William Cornysh and Benjamin Britten were prolific in both sacred and secular music. Cornysh is actually two people, often confused with one another and quite possibly father and son. The matter of telling which man wrote which works is impossible to settle, so for the purpose of this album they are linked as one. So whether it be the Elder or the Younger, we are fortunate that they not only excelled at writing complex and adventurous antiphons for the church but also beautiful secular songs for the Tudor court. For Britten writing in the 20th-century life was very different; he is a composer who encompassed so many facets of music excelling in opera, solo song and all manners of vocal and instrumental music. This album looks at the way these composers mixed sacred with secular. Whilst Cornysh's sacred music is elaborate and rhythmically complicated, his secular music is simple yet subtly evocative. Britten makes constant demands on vocal artistry best displayed in the last work he ever wrote for unaccompanied voices, Sacred and Profane.
Famed for it's interpretations of some of Handel's most loved works, The Sixteen marks the start of it's 40th anniversary season by releasing it's first new Handel recording in five years. Handel's pastoral opera is a tale of love, tragedy and liberation. The libretto by John Gay, based on Ovid's Metamorphoses (book XIII), tells of the eternal love between the mortal shepherd Acis and goddess Galatea and how it is doomed by the jealous cyclops Polyphemus. Handel's music beautifully demonstrates the pain and love in such beautiful, dramatic choruses as 'Wretched lovers!' and the grief felt by Galatea in 'Must I my Acis still bemoan'. Staying true to the premiere in 1718, just five singers and nine instrumentalists feature on this intimate recording.
Harry Christophers has been at the forefront of choral music for the last 45 years and this album, in celebration of his 70th birthday, demonstrates the breadth of his musical passions and the wealth of repertoire he has recorded over the years. Featuring 39 tracks hand-picked by the conductor, the works on this collection document Harry Christophers' life in music-from his early years as a chorister at Canterbury Cathedral, through his time at Magdalen College, Oxford, and subsequent founding of The Sixteen, to more recent years as Artistic Director of America's renowned Handel and Haydn Society. This collection charts his discovery as a boy of Purcell and Poulenc to his enduring love for the music of Victoria and Handel and his celebrated partnership with James MacMillan. Each track holds special significance and the stories behind the choices are documented in notes especially written by Harry Christophers for this album.
