Christmas simply wouldn't be Christmas without the iconic voices of The Sixteen providing a soundtrack to the season. Celebrated for collections that provide an alternative to the customary festive offerings, this new album from the world-renown choir is no exception. No other festival in the Christian year has inspired so many composers and such a variety of musical styles as Christmas. The Wise Men and the Star features a veritable cornucopia of yuletide music from the premieres of three new works to traditional carols including Away in a manger and In the bleak midwinter, and modern classics such as Eric Whitacre's Lux aurumque and Mykola Leontovich's Carol of the bells. This new album promises something for everyone.

Recorded live at Boston's magnificent Symphony Hall, CORO brings together on one album the Handel and Haydn Society's recordings of Haydn's early Symphonies Nos. 6, 7 & 8. Known as Le matin, Le midi and Le soir, the three works, written shortly after Haydn joined the court of Prince Paul Anton Esterhazy, are amongst the most striking of the composer's early symphonies. Characterised by unusual virtuoso writing across the orchestral ensemble, all three works feature extensive solo passages for the wind, horn and strings, including rare solo writing for the�double bass�and�bassoon, and demonstrate Haydn's emerging skill as a master of symphonic writing.

Featuring timeless melodies from Guide me, O thou great redeemer (known to millions as 'Bread of heaven') to Abide with me, this stunning collection of�some of the best-loved hymns of all time�from The Choir of Magdalen College, Oxford, accompanied by the College's magnificent Eule organ, offers a glimpse into the daily musical life of this celebrated choir.

On this 2012 recording, previously available on Decca, Robert Hollingworth leads his celebrated ensemble, I Fagiolini, on a journey unearthing incredible lost works from the late Renaissance and early Baroque, adding to their acclaimed 'Colossal Baroque' series on CORO. 1612 - the death of Giovanni Gabrieli, master of the 'Massive Baroque' and most brilliant of Venetian multi-choir composers but also the publication of Lodovico Grossi da Viadana's very modern four-choir Vespers collection. I Fagiolini's recording remains the only version of these spectacular Vespers as well as of Giovanni Gabrieli's unparalleled military-evoking Magnificat for seven choirs (meticulously researched and reconstructed by Hugh Keyte) and replete with fanfares and canon blasts.

Handel's Messiah needs no introduction. This mighty yet majestic masterpiece is the most popular oratorio ever written and includes, arguably, the most famous chorus of all time-the iconic Hallelujah! Handel was a master chorus writer and for Messiah he certainly pulled out all the stops, placing the choir front and centre throughout. Although it has become synonymous with Christmas, Messiah was originally written as an Easter offering, bursting onto the stage of the Musick Hall in Dublin in April 1742. Taken from it's Award-winning 2008 complete recording of Messiah (COR16062), this collection from The Sixteen celebrates the wonderful choruses that have given so many singers, both amateur and professional, such joy and inspired an enduring love for this epic work.

In an age of resurgent conflict and frenetic demands on our attention, Angel of Peace offers a slice of tranquillity in many forms courtesy of luminous, purifying music traversing six centuries. This album centres on the power and beauty of poetry in music, bringing together the exquisite simplicity of the songs of 12th-century Abbess Hildegard of Bingen with John Taverner's joyous large scale antiphons composed some 400 years later. Leap forward to more recent times and we hear new settings by Will Todd and Anna Clyne of words by Cardinal Newman and Rainer Maria Rilke. Commissioned for solo violin with choir, both works heighten the intensity of the poetry through the fascinating musical dialogue between strings and voice. Arvo Part, marking his 90th birthday, brings us full circle with his serene clarity. These timeless voices resonate with our deepest need for stillness and with each work we hope to share a moment of peace and connection through the timeless language of music.

This CD features all the music from The Choral Pilgrimage 2013, The Sixteen's annual UK tour, including the new version of Allegri’s Miserere and MacMillan’s new, and equally memorable, setting of the same text. The disc also features music by Palestrina including some of his wonderful music for Easter including the Stabat Mater a8 and excerpts from the Missa Regina caeli.

Featuring five of The Sixteen's most celebrated recordings, The Italian Collection is a sumptuous anthology of music. From Allegri's hauntingly beautiful Miserere to the virtuosity, vibrant colour and dynamic energy of Handel's Dixit Dominus, this collection spans three centuries of glorious Italian choral music. Box set contains: 'Iste Confessor' (COR16003), 'Allegri: Miserere' (COR16014), 'Music from the Sistine Chapel' (COR16047), 'Venetian Treasures' (COR16053), 'Handel: Dixit Dominus / Steffani: Stabat Mater' (COR16076)

The Sixteen has long been hailed for it's championing of Tudor music, especially that of the Eton Choirbook, as well as for choral treasures of 20th century and it's work with 21st centuries composers. And so to mark it's 40th year the group has return to it's grass roots in a album that celebrates those passions. An Enduring Voice brings together some of the most glorious music from the past and present. It contrasts a new commission by award-winning composer Sir James MacMillan with music from the 15th and 16th centuries by Fayrfax, Wylkynson and Sheppard. These fine examples of English polyphony are juxtaposed with stunning music by Tavener, Gabriel Jackson and Eric Whitacre.

In celebration of the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth, CORO Connections is delighted to present Ian Watson and Susanna Ogata’s acclaimed complete exploration of the Sonatas for Fortepiano and Violin in one stunning boxed-set edition. All 10 sonatas, performed exclusively on period instruments, from the epic ‘Kreutzer’ to the sublime ‘Spring’ feature in this four volume set. “The music's moody outbursts and vivacity come fully alive in elegant readings that are attentive to quicksilver changes in dynamics and articulation...the Sonata No. 4 in A minor is darkly played, their 'Kreutzer' Sonata brilliant and stormy.” (The New York Times) “There's something positively gleeful about the way the pair deliver the opening gambit of Op. 30 No. 3, and the same sonata's Haydnesque finale practically swings.” (Gramophone) “Their trim, alert reading of Op.24 arguably provides their most effective and expansive vehicle yet...it combines an appropriate sense of idiom with an abundance of vitality, sensitivity and insight, and furnishes Beethoven’s textures with a clarity rarely achieved.” (The Strad)

The sacred choral music of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries from Venice, especially that written for the splendour of St Mark’s, has a unique style. From the rich and sonorous sound world of the Gabrielis to the airy zestfulness of Caldara’s contemporary Vivaldi, this was music which dazzled the rest of Europe.

2011 marks the 400th anniversary of the death of Tomás Luis de Victoria. This remarkable Spaniard epitomized the emotion and fervour of Renaissance Europe and could be considered the most outstanding composer of his time. This new boxed set contains four of The Sixteen's celebrated Victoria recordings for the price of three including his masterpiece, the Requiem of 1605 recorded in surround sound and released in SACD format. A beautifully packaged set, which compliments perfectly the release of The Sixteen's newest recording by the composer - Hail, Mother of the Redeemer, also features some of the composer's Lamentations for Holy week. What could make a more appropriate Easter gift? '...a wonderful opportunity to hear previously unrecorded repertoire and to gain a much fuller understanding of a single Renaissance master.' Gramophone on Devotion to our Lady. 'This is what recording should be about...excellent performances and recorded sound... beautiful and moving.' Gramophone on The Mystery of the Cross.

Voices of Thunder features a range of spectacular choral pieces that showcase Magdalen College Chapel’s new Eule organ. Following on from Peace I Leave with You, this new album combines the sublime voices of The Choir of Magdalen College, Oxford, with the new and exciting sonorities of the Eule organ. The recording includes music from Joseph Haydn to Judith Weir, as well as Arvo Pärt’s atmospheric Beatitudes, Libby Larsen’s playful I Will Sing and Raise a Psalm, and Hubert Parry’s thunderous Blest Pair of Sirens. The Eule organ was built by Herman Eule Orgelbau of Bautzen in Germany and is the first Eule organ of its kind to have been built in the UK for almost 100 years.

REVIEW:

The installation of a new pipe organ, like any long-awaited new arrival, is always best marked with some kind of celebratory fanfare such as this splendid, generously filled disc. This disc is a triumph for the Magdalen musicians and an equally enjoyable experience from both choral and organ points of view.

— Gramophone

I Fagiolini continues it's rediscovery of multi-choir masses from mid-17th-century Rome by maestro and 'fixer' Orazio Benevoli. The four-choir work on this new recording, 'Missa Benevola', is accentuated with even more instrumental colour to allow the ear to appreciate the dance between the four separated ensembles. Enjoy the famous 'mule' technique that Handel noted 50 years later and then re-used in Messiah. Alongside this, Carissimi's well-known Jephte transposed to the lower pitch at use in Rome at the time, injecting a more profound colour into both individual voices and it's famously plangent final chorus. All the Masses in I Fagiolini's Benevoli series are premiere recordings.

Recognizing the centenary of the Anglo-Irish composer Charles Villiers Stanford's death, this new album from The Sixteen includes a number of premiere recordings of his Irish Folksongs and Partsongs.

Stanford is celebrated both nationally and internationally as a composer of great diversity. He composed a substantial number of concert works, including seven symphonies, but he is best-remembered for his choral works. Stanford's writing for voices is exquisite and his imaginative storytelling is ever-present in his Irish Folksongs where he captures everything from fiery revenge to passionate love with equal effectiveness.

Stanford's dedication to the poetry of Mary Elizabeth Coleridge also stands out-he was drawn to the lyricism of her poetry and the imagery she conjures up-something that is clearly heard in his Opus 127 settings. Much of her poetry is marked by a sense of loss and change, nowhere better portrayed than in The Guest with its unsettling narrative.