Highlights from some of the most celebrated recordings from Harry Christophers and his award-winning ensemble. Equally appealing to fans of The Sixteen and those who are new to the group, this disc provides a definitive collection of familiar classics and lesser-known treasures.

R E V I E W:
British choir the Sixteen is billed as being among "the Voices of Classic FM," the impressively successful British independent classical radio network. This mixed-gender adult group of (natch) 16 voices performs music ranging from the early English Renaissance to Mozart and, on occasion, the Romantics. An objection to their style might be that they tend to sound similar in all these repertories. This double-CD "essential collection" tends to reinforce that idea, but it also showcases the group's considerable strengths. To put it briefly, the Sixteen makes early music go down easy and does so without turning it completely into something different. The vocal surfaces are gorgeous, and each album contains a note by director Harry Christophers that touches on connections between the music's origins and its resonances in our own time. They sweat the details and that has never been more apparent than in this greatest-hits release. Most of the time such albums are left to label underlings and produced without imagination, but this one is beautifully packaged and has a full new set of notes concisely explaining the album's fresh concept. That concept is well thought-out; the album is not just a random selection of tracks somehow judged to be the best of the Sixteen, whose music-making is nothing if not consistent. Instead, each piece chosen is associated with a specific historical event, many of them significant junctures in British history. You couldn't ask for a better place to start in approaching unfamiliar music than to get a basic grip on its context in this way and then have it very attractively performed. The remastering is very strong; there's little sense of shifting sonic perspective even though the originals are drawn from a wide variety of this prolific group's releases. All this makes the album a fine introduction to one of modern Britain's most successful vocal groups.

-- All Music Guide

The Sixteen / Harry Christophers
The Symphony of Harmony and Invention
Ann Murray, Lorna Anderson, Gillian Fisher, John Mark Ainsley, Michael Chance, Richard Stuart, Ian Partridge, Michael George

The famous Hilliard Ensemble presents a tribute to the fifteenth-century master composer Ockeghem. Interspersed with the music are parts of Guillaume Crétin’s Lament on the Death of the Late Ockeghem, Treasurer of Saint Martin of Tours, in a specially commissioned translation, read by Bob Peck. This disc is the second of four live discs by The Hilliard Ensemble to be released on CORO. The first disc – Pérotin and the Ars Antiqua - won a Diapason D’Or.

The result of a brand new collaboration between two of the finest modern day exponents of classical music, this exquisite disc brings fresh lifeblood to Fauré's peerless 'Requiem' and injects imaginative invention and poetic phrasing into two of Mozart's choral masterpieces. Recorded at the 2007 Mostly Mozart Festival at London's Barbican Hall, this disc reflects the unique live experience of a concert performance that captivated its audience. Conducted by Harry Christophers, The Sixteen and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields are joined by four soloists for this recording. '...the singers of The Sixteen evoked an unearthly expressiveness. Fauré once said: 'here it was as if we had stumbled upon some private memorial, and caught a haunting glimpse of paradise.'' - The London Independent

R E V I E W S:

"This is a live recording of a concert given at last year’s Mostly Mozart festival...Despite its title, Mozart’s pithy Solemn Vespers mostly bristle with a joyous, late-Haydn-like energy, though the lilting Laudate dominum is an expressive high point within the psalm sequence. The solemnity comes with Fauré’s Requiem and the curtain-raiser, Mozart’s late motet Ave verum corpus, which are expressive and both emotionally and spiritually profound. Harry Christophers, the Sixteen and the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields straddle the styles and approaches impressively. Roderick Williams is an excellent, rich-toned baritone soloist, while Ruth Massey conveys just the right measure of fragility in her Pie Jesu."
-- Stephen Pettitt, Sunday Times (London) [3/9/2008]

It often takes one man to encourage excellence in the arts and in the flourishing Portugal of the 1600s, at the forefront of world exploration; Dom Joao IV was very much that man. In his court, his favoured composers developed a unique style within the European heritage of sacred music, distinctly and devotionally Portuguese. Resplendent ... The Sixteen bring a wonderfully intense sense to this music. "All the music is of a high quality, and it is excellently performed... The singers are quite superb... one of the best and most interesting discs by The Sixteen in recent years, and the sound is excellent." Gramophone

BACH Masses, in g, BWV 235; in F, BWV 233. Cantata No. 102 • Harry Christophers, cond; The Sixteen Ch & O (period instruments) • CORO 16115 (74:07 Text and Translation)


It’s getting harder to lament the curious neglect of Bach’s short or “Lutheran” Masses. Within recent memory I’ve had the privilege of auditioning new sets by Ton Koopman, (Challenge), Konrad Junghänel (Harmonia Mundi), and Raphaël Pichon (Alpha). Philippe Herreweghe’s excellent set was reissued by Virgin, and Brilliant has even revived Hanns-Martin Schneidt’s 1974 version in its complete Bach Edition box. Helmuth Rilling on Hänssler is still around. Now comes the first installment of a new set by Harry Christophers. Nevertheless, the short Masses do get considerably less attention than the cantatas, which they resemble in every way except for the absence of recitatives and closing chorales. The cantatas, after all, tell stories; the Masses do not. In fact, most—probably all—of the music in the Masses is recycled from pre-existing cantatas.


In these performances Christophers has reduced The Sixteen by a half, to eight singers only: Grace Davidson and Julia Doyle, sopranos; Robin Blaze and William Purefoy, countertenors; Jeremy Budd and Mark Dobell, tenors; Ben Davies and Eamonn Dougan, basses. The voices are accompanied by a slightly larger instrumental ensemble: 3, 3, 2 (or 3), 2, and 1 of strings, plus the necessary winds and continuo. All of the singers take solo turns, except Doyle. The only soprano aria on the disc, in the F-Major Mass, went to Davidson.


One lesson we might take from this release is that Bach rocks, although we already knew that. The Kyrie of the G-Minor Mass, a real toe-tapper, gets the ball rolling, and Christophers takes it from there, injecting the choral movements, especially, with abundant energy. The double quartet is very effective throughout. I was a little less enthralled by some of the arias, but not enough to discourage me from giving the whole enterprise a thumbs up. Because the combined Masses run just over 52 minutes, Coro has generously added a Cantata, No. 102, between the Masses, a welcome bonus. I’m looking forward to Volume II.


FANFARE: George Chien

This selection is a Hybrid Super Audio CD. The Stereo Hybrid SACD program can be played on any standard compact disc player. The DSD Surround and Stereo programs require an SACD player for playback.


Thomas Tallis' 40-voice motet Spem in alium (scored for eight five-part choirs) was composed some 400 years before the modern age of recordings, and perhaps it's a work that's best left for the experience of live performance. Granted, capturing this grand Renaissance experiment in sound and performance logistics (said to have been composed in response to a ducal challenge) is an irresistible temptation for choirs and record companies, most of whose attempts have resulted in something less than the imagined "wall of sound" effect promised by its sumptuous rich-textured, full-bodied scoring. But if you're going to record it, you might as well use whatever technical means are at your disposal to reproduce the wide vocal range, sonic depth, and pure physical sensation engendered by this huge concentration of vocal forces, which in the tutti passages is sort of like the choral equivalent of an all-stops-out cathedral organ.

Until now, the best version on disc was by The Tallis Scholars. Recorded nearly 20(!) years ago, it remains a top choice, absolutely stunning in coherence and cohesiveness, to say nothing of its firm balances and amazing sonic power. (Interestingly, but not surprisingly, many of the singers on that earlier disc appear here as well.) However, this new release from Coro goes even further in bringing us closer to the live experience and manages (remarkably) to capture even more interior detail of the massed vocal forces. Since this is not a work that delivers sound from a relatively focused source--it literally comes from all directions--a surround-sound SACD recording makes a lot of sense, and even though this review is based on listening to this "hybrid" on a standard CD player (the SACD-system review will follow), there's no question that the engineering and mastering techniques used were expertly done to maximize the music's strengths--and delivering it with more clarity and wide-ranging dynamic impact than ever before.

And that's only part of an extraordinary program that goes on to feature several more gems drawn from "a century of British history", including a convincing reconstruction of a Tomkins masterpiece (until recently unattributed) that's never before been recorded. The disc's subtitle, "Music for Monarchs and Magnates", sets the rationale for selections that highlight mostly larger-scale motets and anthems (and a sublime Te Deum by Tallis) composed for special, royal occasions, sometimes containing a not-too-subtle political commentary in their carefully-chosen Biblical texts. Byrd's rarely-heard Latin motet Deus venerunt is a 13-plus-minute disconcerted response to the execution of Jesuit priests, expressed in the words of a Psalm and in music that's deliberately refined and solemn--and gorgeous. Some of the works are accompanied by instruments--cornetts, sackbutts, viols--and the effect is always to the benefit of the music, surrounding and enhancing the voices with colors both bright and rich. Orlando Gibbons' Great King of Gods is a highlight among these latter pieces.

The disc closes with yet another performance of Spem in alium, this time in its English-text setting, "Sing and glorify". And who would complain about hearing this magnificent work again? As you might expect, the singing throughout is absolutely first-class--and with many of Britain's top performers on hand, combined with such exalted repertoire, we're treated to one of the choral events of the year, one that will remain a standard for more than its spectacular sound. (My only complaint: Coro continues its user-unfriendly practice of providing a straight track listing only on the outside of the CD box.

The disc closes with yet another performance of Spem in alium, this time in its English-text setting, "Sing and glorify". And who would complain about hearing this magnificent work again? As you might expect, the singing throughout is absolutely first-class--and with many of Britain's top performers on hand, combined with such exalted repertoire, we're treated to one of the choral events of the year, one that will remain a standard for more than its spectacular sound. (My only complaint: Coro continues its user-unfriendly practice of providing a straight track listing only on the outside of the CD box.)
--David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com

The perfect gift for Christmas – three of The Sixteen’s most celebrated festive CDs in a Boxset. From medieval carols with fiddles, harps and drums to the traditional carols we know and love, this collection includes favourite twentieth century English carols.

And the mezzo lode continues to run as rich and high-quality as ever, supplying the world with yet another first-rate singer. Of course, Sarah Connolly hasn't exactly come out of nowhere: she's been a member of The Sixteen Choir and has made acclaimed appearances for the past several years in opera roles and concerts throughout the U.S. and Europe. This collaboration with her former Sixteen conductor, Harry Christophers, reveals the impressive maturity and technique of Connolly along with Christophers' solid command of Handelian drama. The repertoire may not be the most common collection of arias (only one is very familiar), but the selection is no less engaging for that; the idea of this recital was to "depict not only the close links between opera and oratorio in Handel's works but also equate the position of hero and heroine." Interesting programming concept aside, what you hear is top-notch Handel singing in some very characterful and artistically challenging pieces.


From Connolly's first notes, "Sta nell' Ircana" from Alcina, we have no doubt about this voice's considerable dramatic capabilities, and we can't help but be impressed with both her range (free of discernible register breaks) and ease of delivery from top to bottom. By the aria's end she's confirmed the power of her lowest register notes and ability to fully embody and project her character. I'm not wild about her "ha-ha-ha-ha-ha" articulation in one of the aria's repeated figures, but since she doesn't exhibit this annoying mannerism anywhere else, I assume it's an intended "effect" (imitating the orchestral figures, perhaps?) and only mention it because it's so striking and uncharacteristic of her singing in general.


Connolly is just as convincing and her voice is as lovely in the slower arias, including "Mi lusingha il dolce affetto" from Alcina (all seven minutes of it!). Her breath control is amazing and she completely enthralls with her attractive, sensible ornaments. And she's lucky to have such a partner in Christophers and his attentive orchestra: listen as he takes Connolly's lead from the intro to Ariodante's tender "Scherza infida" and hands her a perfectly set atmosphere of sorrow and tragic determination. This is the highlight of the CD, Connolly's subtle vocal shading, expressive phrasing, and vibrant tone varying from gently floating to more emphatically projected--the definition of captivating.


Other listeners may cite the following "Dopo notte", a brisk, high-energy aria from the same opera, as the most impressive of Connolly's performances, and it would be hard to argue in light of the singer's command of the reams of rapid runs and wildly leaping lines while maintaining the flow and emotional intensity of this fiendishly difficult seven minutes of music. And then there's the beloved and oft-performed "Verdi prati", which Connolly renders as sensitively and with as sumptuous a tone and smoothly-spun legato as we could hope for. The final "Where shall I fly?" from Hercules is a magnificent display of virtuoso vocalism, although I still prefer Stephanie Blythe's more fluid, richer-voiced rendition--purely a matter of personal taste. And again, much credit must go to Christophers' smart orchestral leadership and to the crisply pointed accents, finely honed rhythms, and warm sound of the Symphony of Harmony and Invention, recorded to the highest modern standard. Some errors in the packaging list several incorrect track timings, but these all indicate that we get less of Connolly when actually we get more--and that's definitely a good thing. [10/11/2004]
--David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com

The Sixteen and Harry Christophers have long been applauded for their dedication to the works of Victoria, and this CD is a superb example of the composer's depth and the artists' performance. 'Scholar, mystic, priest, singer, organist, and composer - six persons all rolled into one and that is, quite simply, why Victoria is the most outstanding composer of the Renaissance.' (HC) This Holy Week music combines an intensity of expresion with a sombre passionate and mysterious quality often thought of as peculiarly Spanish. Victoria's own intense faith imbues every note, and is expressed in the words of his own dedication of the piece to the Holy Trinity, 'God, most high Trinity, may every soul praise you. For ever reign over those you save through the Mystery of the Cross.'

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.

If you own The Sixteen's 20th Century Christmas Collection (on now-defunct Collins), you have most of the works included on this reissue offered by the choir's own Coro label. The difference is that Britten's A Ceremony of Carols (also previously issued on Collins in The Sixteen's Britten series) appears here instead of Peter Maxwell Davies' O magnum mysterium, a move that certainly makes for a more marketable package. If you don't have the original, this program features many of what have become classics of modern Christmas choral repertoire, among them Howells' A spotless rose, Warlock's Balulalow, Britten's A Hymn to the Virgin, Tavener's The Lamb, and Gardner's setting of Tomorrow shall be my dancing day. But Kenneth Leighton's Coventry Carol is a rarely heard masterpiece, as is Warlock's Corpus Christi--and Rubbra's short The Virgin's Cradle Song and Peter Fricker's similarly brief A babe is born are well worth repeated hearings. This Ceremony of Carols is arguably the finest in the catalog (at least among performances with women's voices), and throughout the disc there is consistently top-notch ensemble singing and solo work of the highest order. The sound is identical to the exceptional quality of the initial releases. An essential disc for any choral and Christmas music library. [10/19/2002]--David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com

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.

'A disc of exceptional quality, reinforcing The Sixteen's reputation as one of the finest choirs of our day.' Gramophone "The Sixteen perform Britten's virtuosic masterpiece with fearsome accuracy and a luxurious sound." Classic FM Magazine "Britten's mastery for writing for unaccompanied chorus is here demonstrated in fine performances..." BBC Music Magazine This superb collection, released in celebration of the 100th anniversary of Britten's birth, features all three of The Sixteen's celebrated Britten recordings. Arguably the most famous British composer of the 20th century, Benjamin Britten possessed a formidable talent and distinctive style. His remarkable career spanned over 40 years and this collection of choral works features a fascinating selection of music from throughout his life. Works include Hymn to the Virgin, a piece originally conceived during his school days; A Boy was Born which first brought him to the public's attention; the much-loved A Ceremony of Carols - a masterpiece composed on board ship as Britten returned to England from the USA in 1942; and the Choral Dances from 'Gloriana' with tenor soloist Ian Partridge. A Ceremony of Carols won a coveted Deutsche Schallplattenkritik when first released.

Harry Christophers and The Sixteen have long been celebrated for their recordings and performances of Handel. Over the past three decades Harry Christophers and his award-winning ensemble have expanded their Handel repertoire to take in his greatest works. They have also made numerous recordings of Handel’s masterpieces and this twelve CD boxed set features a selection of some of their finest discs along with three remarkable solo albums featuring The Sixteen’s celebrated orchestra and acclaimed sopranos Sarah Connolly, Ann Murray and Elin Manahan Thomas.

Reviews of some of the original recordings that make up this set:

Coronation Anthems
By any standards this is a major release. Even in a year which is seeing, predictably, a glut of Handel releases, many of them extremely fine, this stands out. Harry Christophers and The Sixteen have enjoyed tremendous success at home and abroad with performances that have caught the imagination of a public outside (as well as inside) the traditional concert hall (and, to add a quick plug, they will be the subject of next month’s cover story). And here, perhaps more than in any other of their excellent recent issues, they show just why.

This is an opulently sung and played Handel disc but also a cunning one. Christophers has thought deeply about how to pace these works, how to marshall his resources for maximum but never superficial effect. The opening of Zadok the Priest, for instance, so familiar to us all, is here subdued, hushed and steady. When the melody opens out, The Sixteen add power and sheen, giving a sudden surge. It reminds one of the historian Charles Burney's observation of Handel (quoted by Christophers) that "when he did smile, it was his sire the sun, bursting out of a black cloud".

A tremendous issue. One to keep on the shelves and return to frequently.

-- Gramophone [4/2009]

A good modern recording of Samson is overdue. It is extraordinary that this fine work, composed within weeks of Messiah, and in Handel’s day possibly the most popular of all his oratorios, should be represented on the Gramophone Database only by one version recorded nearly 20 years ago and the unidiomatic and heavily cut Harnoncourt recording made in 1992. The new one does not obliterate memories of the old, which captures performances by a generation of British Handel interpreters at their finest (Dame Janet Baker, Helen Watts, Robert Tear, Benjamin Luxon and John Shirley-Quirk, as well as several admirable younger singers). But the new version gives a complete and straightforward account of the work, in tune with styles of Handel performance favoured today. Except in one particular: most conductors of period-instrument groups tend to favour faster tempos than those Harry Christophers generally chooses. This is a decidedly leisurely reading of the work; clearly Christophers has a sense of its magnitude, of the big issues with which it is involved and the nobility of its utterance, and he will not let himself be hurried. I think there are times, especially in the final act, where quicker tempos would have been helpful towards the maintenance of the oratorio’s momentum. Similarly, I wish that he had moved a shade more swiftly during the recitatives, and – or this may be the editors – from one number to the next, simply to sustain the dramatic impetus more strongly. I suspect, however, that Christophers is probably less concerned with the drama of the work than with its religious and philosophical aspects, and of course with presenting a direct and faithful realization of it: a perfectly legitimate approach and one that I am sure many will applaud.

He has an excellent cast. Thomas Randle is well equipped for Samson, a firm, strong tenor, with a hint of baritonal quality in his middle and lower registers. There is no bombast here. “Total eclipse” has much of pathos but no heroics. “Why does the God of Israel sleep” is done with some power, and the renunciation of Dalila (“Your charms to ruin”) is weightily sung; and there is plenty of fire in his rejection of the Philistine braggart Harapha but never at the cost of musical singing. It is not strongly characterized: an estimable performance but one that does not quite catch you by the throat. Samson’s father Manoah is sung with characteristic warmth and depth of tone and feeling by Michael George: listen for example to his “Thy glorious deeds” in Act 1. His bass contrasts aptly with the tauter, more focused one of Jonathan Best’s Harapha. Mark Padmore contributes some well-placed singing as both the Israelite and the Philistine man. Lynne Dawson does the same as the woman from both camps (and also the Virgin, echoing Dalila in one appealing number); she contributes a vigorous “Let the bright seraphim” (which here has a brief choral section at the end, surviving in Handel’s manuscript but probably never heard before). I enjoyed Lynda Russell’s soft, seductive Dalila, a modest role, confined to Act 2; but perhaps above all Catherine Wyn-Rogers excels as Micah, with beautifully intense singing and concentrated tone in all her music – her phrasing in “Then long eternity” and the heartfelt expression in “Return O God of hosts”, for example, are quite outstanding. Stylistically the performance is cautious, with only modest added ornamentation and brief cadenzas, but of course the requisite appoggiaturas in the recitative: if an error, it’s certainly in the right direction.

The Sixteen provide clear and spirited choral singing throughout, suitably jolly in the Philistine music, duly noble in that for the Hebrews. I was struck by the unusual clarity of texture in the choruses, attributable both to Christophers’s direction and insistence on firm tone and incisive articulation and to the work of the engineers. Altogether a welcome issue.'

-- Stanley Sadie, Gramophone [8/1997]

Esther
"There can be little question that the true heroes of the present recording are Christophers, who conducts the work with a fervent conviction that makes the excellent Hogwood look at times a little prosaic, and his quite magnificent chorus, who sing throughout with an incisive precision, superb articulation, and clarity of diction that is often electrifying. Michael Chance sings a wonderful Priest (his intensely moving “O Jordan, Jordan” is one of the highlights of the set) that eclipses that of Drew Minter, and Nancy Argenta provides a poignant reminder of the singer she was with a radiantly joyful “Praise the Lord.” Haman, the one character of real interest (there are surely pre-echoes of Saul in his downfall), is powerfully sung by Michael George...this is a quite splendid performance of a work more often mentioned by historians than heard, a fate it certainly does not deserve."

-- Brian Robins, Fanfare

Delirio Amoroso
"Like most Coro releases to date, this is a reissue of a disc originally put out by the now-defunct Collins Classics label. The present disc dispenses with services of The Sixteen to feature three of the Italian cantatas composed during Handel’s prodigious Italian sojourn (1706–1710), all of those here dating from the first half of 1707. The most conventional in form is Clori, mia bella, a pastoral in which—over the course of four brief da capo arias alternating with secco recitative—a young man experiences the varying emotions attached to the uncertainties of love. The spirit of the piece is none too serious, Handel’s music utterly delicious. Both the other cantatas are more ambitiously planned, providing ample evidence of the young composer’s often-innovative approach to the form. Armida abbandonata, scored for just two violins and continuo, but here done with a fuller body of strings, has as its subject the abandonment of the sorceress Armida by the Christian knight Rinaldo as related in Tasso’s Gerusalemme liberata, a topic to which Handel was to return in his first London opera, Rinaldo. It opens with a remarkable accompanied recitative in which the singer is accompanied by two violins senza basso, then proceeds to a heartbroken aria of ravishing beauty, and a highly dramatic accompanied dramatic recitative in which the scorned Armida gives vent to her conflicting emotions.

The semidramatic Delirio amoroso is designed on an even grander scale, the vocal writing being more virtuosic, with each of its arias having an obbligato part. The text by Handel’s Roman patron Cardinal Benedetto Pamphili also taps into the fashionable Arcadian theme. In her delirium, the scorned and distraught Chloris follows her unfaithful dead lover to Hades, only to be rejected once more. Out of compassionate love, she leads him to Elysium, where a beautiful Entrée prefigures the idea of Gluck’s blessed spirits.

The much admired, indeed much loved, Irish mezzo Ann Murray makes no pretence of being an early-music singer, but she brings considerable style to these splendid examples of Handel’s burgeoning flair and invention. The voice itself sounds lovely, and it is produced with an enviable ease, floating and phrasing Handel’s wonderful melodies with real musicality. Equally as important are Murray’s strong powers of communication and feeling for text."

-- Brian Robins, Fanfare

Heroes and Heroines / Sarah Connolly
"And the mezzo lode continues to run as rich and high-quality as ever, supplying the world with yet another first-rate singer. Of course, Sarah Connolly hasn't exactly come out of nowhere: she's been a member of The Sixteen Choir and has made acclaimed appearances for the past several years in opera roles and concerts throughout the U.S. and Europe. This collaboration with her former Sixteen conductor, Harry Christophers, reveals the impressive maturity and technique of Connolly along with Christophers' solid command of Handelian drama. The repertoire may not be the most common collection of arias (only one is very familiar), but the selection is no less engaging for that; the idea of this recital was to "depict not only the close links between opera and oratorio in Handel's works but also equate the position of hero and heroine." Interesting programming concept aside, what you hear is top-notch Handel singing in some very characterful and artistically challenging pieces.>

From Connolly's first notes, "Sta nell' Ircana" from Alcina, we have no doubt about this voice's considerable dramatic capabilities, and we can't help but be impressed with both her range (free of discernible register breaks) and ease of delivery from top to bottom. By the aria's end she's confirmed the power of her lowest register notes and ability to fully embody and project her character. I'm not wild about her "ha-ha-ha-ha-ha" articulation in one of the aria's repeated figures, but since she doesn't exhibit this annoying mannerism anywhere else, I assume it's an intended "effect" (imitating the orchestral figures, perhaps?) and only mention it because it's so striking and uncharacteristic of her singing in general.


Connolly is just as convincing and her voice is as lovely in the slower arias, including "Mi lusingha il dolce affetto" from Alcina (all seven minutes of it!). Her breath control is amazing and she completely enthralls with her attractive, sensible ornaments. And she's lucky to have such a partner in Christophers and his attentive orchestra: listen as he takes Connolly's lead from the intro to Ariodante's tender "Scherza infida" and hands her a perfectly set atmosphere of sorrow and tragic determination. This is the highlight of the CD, Connolly's subtle vocal shading, expressive phrasing, and vibrant tone varying from gently floating to more emphatically projected--the definition of captivating.


Other listeners may cite the following "Dopo notte", a brisk, high-energy aria from the same opera, as the most impressive of Connolly's performances, and it would be hard to argue in light of the singer's command of the reams of rapid runs and wildly leaping lines while maintaining the flow and emotional intensity of this fiendishly difficult seven minutes of music. And then there's the beloved and oft-performed "Verdi prati", which Connolly renders as sensitively and with as sumptuous a tone and smoothly-spun legato as we could hope for. The final "Where shall I fly?" from Hercules is a magnificent display of virtuoso vocalism, although I still prefer Stephanie Blythe's more fluid, richer-voiced rendition--purely a matter of personal taste. And again, much credit must go to Christophers' smart orchestral leadership and to the crisply pointed accents, finely honed rhythms, and warm sound of the Symphony of Harmony and Invention, recorded to the highest modern standard."
--David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com [10/11/2004]

Followers of The Sixteen will recognize this Coro title as identical to the choir's 1997 release on Collins (now deleted). Of course, you have to open the package and read the very small print on the back of the liner booklet to find out for sure--just one of several annoying, user-unfriendly design features present on Coro's first batch of discs (including the near-impossible-to-remove "security" tape and the listing of tracks and timings only on the back of the disc box). Fortunately, the music and performances are outstanding, the sound is vibrant, and we're treated to first-rate interpretations of rarely heard repertoire.


Scarlatti's Stabat mater has received several decent recordings--nearly all of which appear on programs with works by other composers--but the rest of this all-Scarlatti disc fills gaps in the catalog that are important more than just for musicological reasons. The Te Deum, the Missa Breve "La Stella", and the lovely hymn setting Iste Confessor are significant works that extend the common view of this composer from essentially a keyboard master to a more detailed and rounded picture that includes a serious facility for choral writing. The Sixteen is in top form--just listen to the last minute or so of the Te Deum--and Scarlatti often surprises with an unusually clever fugal idea or flashy harmonic sequence (again, the ending of the Te Deum). If you have the Collins disc, you won't need to replace it; if you don't, then grab this and enjoy.
--David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com

Three of The Sixteen's celebrated Bach recordings in one stylish boxed set. Weihnachts Oratorium (COR16017) - The Christmas Oratorio is one of Bach's greatest masterpieces and this recording is one of The Sixteen's finest. Mark Padmore is one of today's greatest 'Evangelist's', and this recording shows him at his very best. Cantatas 34, 50, 147 (COR16039) - During his years as Leipzig's Director Musices, Bach supplied at least three complete annual cycles of Cantatas for the church year. The rich variety of his writing for solo voices and orchestra along with thrilling choral textures is well represented in the three cantatas on this disc. Mass in B minor (COR16044) - Bach's Mass in B minor displays all the ingredients that contribute to his supreme ranking amongst his peers of any age, and also demonstrates the breadth of compositional skills amassed during his lifetime. It demands choral singing of blistering athleticism but also sensitive, responsive and, at times, majestic orchestral playing coupled with virtuosic obligato. "All hail the über-choir" The Independent

Palestrina had a vast impact on the development of music. Hugely famous in his day, his reputation and influence grew even more following his death and his work can be seen as a summation of Renaissance polyphony. His musical legacy is prodigious even by the standards of the time—he wrote over 100 masses—and he was the first Renaissance composer to have a complete edition of almost his whole output published in modern notation. The eighth recording in The Sixteen’s celebrated series focuses on the Last Supper and the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross at the first Easter and includes the Missa Fratres ego enim accepi. Three settings from the Song of Songs also feature.

Continuing its work with the rising stars of the early music world, CORO is delighted to present its second recording with one of The Sixteen Orchestra's principal members - Robert Quinney. This album, which was recorded at Trinity College, Cambridge, on the beautiful Metzler Organ, features a number of virtuosic works from Bach's early years including one of the most famous pieces of organ music in the repertory - the Toccata and Fugue in D minor (BWV 565). The disc also includes the Toccata and Fugue in F (BWV 540) and the Passacaglia (BWV 582) - one of Bach's most well-known and important organ works. Robert Schumann described the variations of Passacaglia as 'intertwined so ingeniously that one can never cease to be amazed.'

Of all Handel's great oratorios, Israel in Egypt is second only to Messiah in drama. It is dominated by massive virtuosic choruses, making it the perfect piece for The Sixteen, acknowledged by audiences and critics alike. It's not surprising that Israel in Egypt is much-performed. Hailstones and lightning, buzzing flies and leaping frogs, are all brilliantly evoked for choir and orchestra in a series of incisive choruses leading us excitedly through the plagues of Egypt and the crossing of the Red Sea as we follow Moses and the Children of Israel through the story of the Exodus. The epic nature of the story could not be more suited to Handel's genius for story-telling and drama.

HANDEL Coronation Anthems . Organ Concerto, op. 4/4. Salve Regina 1. Semele 1 : Endless Pleasure, Endless Love; My Racking Thoughts; O Ecstasy of Happiness! … Myself I Shall Adore. Solomon: Arrival of the Queen of Sheba • Harry Christophers, cond; The Sixteen Ch and O (period instruments); 1 Carolyn Sampson (sop) • CORO 16083 (DVD: 120:00) Live, London 8/12/2009


This BBC Proms concert, titled A Handel Celebration , commemorates the 250th anniversary of Handel’s death and the 30th anniversary of the founding of The Sixteen, which got its name from the fact that the original chorus had 16 members. The forces used here are a bit larger than those Harry Christophers usually employs. The mixed-voice chorus numbers 30, and the orchestra is listed at 42 members, although it does not appear that they are all onstage at the same time.


The Sixteen has been one of the best period-instrument groups since its founding, and one can see and hear here that both chorus and orchestra remain at the top of their form. Christophers leads performances that are respectful of Handel’s scores, with well-chosen tempos. The orchestra plays with precision (with the occasional slightly sour note to be expected of a live performance), and the chorus projects the words of the four Coronation Anthems vividly. Carolyn Sampson is outstanding in the Salve Regina and the three excerpts from Semele . In the Semele selections, she more than sings the notes; she uses her body and face to create the character she is portraying.


I have stated before that I do not see much use for a DVD preserving a concert because of the limited variety of visual images available in such a setting. Sampson’s portrayal of Semele does, however, provide some justification for seeing as well as hearing her performance, especially in the case of “Myself I Shall Adore.” Christophers hands Sampson a mirror before she begins the aria, and she uses it in giving an engaging performance that draws laughter from the audience, followed by a well-deserved ovation.


The version of the organ concerto featured here is the original version. Although Handel’s organ concertos were written to be performed between the acts of his oratorios, in the first performances in London of Athalia , the concerto was written to be performed before the final (“Hallelujah”) chorus and integrated into it. That is the version we get here, with the chorus.


The DVD has a short interview with Christophers during the intermission of the concert and a slightly longer one as a bonus feature. For some unknown reason, one of the anthems and the Salve Regina are removed from their places in the concert and put into the bonus features section. The anthem My Heart Is Indicting originally concluded the first half of the concert, and Christophers refers to it in his intermission interview, a reference that is puzzling unless one knows that he had just performed the anthem. The Salve Regina was originally the second item in the second part of the concert. Their placement as bonus tracks is nonsensical. The only other bonus feature is written biographies of the principals.


Christophers has recorded most of this material on CD, all available on Coro. His Coronation Anthems is one of my two preferred versions. The organ concerto and the sinfonia from Solomon can be found as additional tracks on that CD. The Salve Regina and selections from Semele are not otherwise available from these forces.


For those who enjoy concert performances, this DVD is an easy recommendation. For the rest of us, the previously unrecorded selections, especially Sampson’s items from Semele , make this a tempting purchase.


FANFARE: Ron Salemi

Britten's 'A Ceremony of Carols' is a masterpiece composed on board ship as Britten returned to England from the U.S.A. in 1948, a touching evocation of boyhood lost but never forgotten. 'A Boy was Born' is a work that first made Britten famous, based on a theme and variations of astonishing ingenuity. The 'Missa Brevis', written for the boys of Westminster Cathedral, is a gem that is some ways looks forward to the 'War Requiem' which came two years later.

BUXTEHUDE Membra Jesu Nostri • Harry Christophers, dir; The Sixteen • CORO COR 16082 (61:23 Text and Translation)


After a thorough look at the extensive representation of this work on disc ( Fanfare 31:5), we get a reissue of an earlier version first reviewed by colleague Michael Carter (25:5), who described as “a smattering of recordings” a Buxtehude discography that has embraced more than 80 of the 120 cantatas stretching back to 1937, a count that is now up to 90, with more than a dozen versions of some of the more familiar works. This version’s performing forces were almost exactly replicated by Alexander Weimann in that recent disc, with five solo singers, nine string players, and organ (Weimann had eight Baroque string instruments). While Weimann delivered one of the two fastest performances in my collection, Harry Christophers hits the median timing, never a bad thing in ranking any competitive series. The recent solo-voice performances include René Jacobs (both versions), Konrad Junghänel, and Jos van Veldhoven in addition to these two, so that will narrow the field for purists. Otherwise, there are some fine performances among the more recent versions cited in the previous review. If I had to limit my choice to a single version, however, it would be Harry Christophers and his sterling group of soloists.


FANFARE: J. F. Weber

This disc combines some of Henry Purcell's most powerful masterpieces. Love's Goddess Sure Was Blind, an exuberant tribute to the young Queen Mary, and some of his most eloquent compositions, written for her funeral. Love's Goddess Sure was Blind, written in exuberant and florid style for the birthday of the much loved young Queen Mary ends, extraordinarily, with a reflection on the grief her eventual death would provoke. It was less than six years later that the prophesied mourning became a reality, when, in her early thirties, she succumbed to smallpox. Purcell's eloquent compositions for her funeral are acknowledged as some of his most powerful masterpieces marrying a genuine of expression of grief (Purcell greatly admired the witty, musical Mary) with a characteristic sophistication of style.

Welcome to The Sixteen's 40th anniversary album. Can it really be 40 years since a fledgling group of singers gave their first concert in May 1979? To celebrate this milestone, we have chosen 40 tracks which have defined this acclaimed ensemble over the last four decades and which display it's incredible versatility, as well as the sheer range of music and styles it has covered. Featuring music from the last 600 years and with personal recommendations from The Sixteen's members both past and present, as well as the longest-serving members of the administrative team, this beautifully packaged album promises to be the must-have collection for all fans of choral music. "Forty years on, The Sixteen's supple, fastidiously nuanced soundworld continues to serve 'ancient' and 'modern' with aplomb." (BBC Music Magazine)