This DVD is accompanied by Harry Christophers and The Sixteen's  audio recording of Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610 (COR16126). In the BBC documentary, actor and former chorister Simon Russell Beale invites us into the heart of the Vespers and the world of their creator. It is the story of a Renaissance Duke and the composer who worked for him - and how their volatile relationship would create one of the most revolutionary and beautiful collections of music ever published: The Monteverdi Vespers of 1610.

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.

Royal Manuscripts: The Genius of Illumination – the British Library’s first major exhibition to bring together the Library’s Royal collection, a treasure trove of illuminated manuscripts from between the 9th and 16th centuries collected by the kings and queens of England between the 9th and 16th centuries. This CD is inspired by the exhibition and includes works performed by The Sixteen from the Eton Choirbook alongside fascinating pieces from medieval and Renaissance France, equally preserved in beautifully illuminated collections of manuscripts and performed here by the Hilliard Ensemble. And finally, one of the crowning glories of music from the Tudor period, Tallis’s monumental Spem in Alium. Over the years it has been our overwhelming desire to rejoice in the survival of this great music. It is collections such as those preserved at the British Library that have enabled us to bring back to life the music that illuminated these fascinating periods in our history.

Portuguese sacred music of this period inhabits a distinctive sound world that can be seen as a continuation and development of the Spanish style of composers such as Morales and Guerrero, but it is often allied to a tantalizing harmonic richness and colour that is found nowhere else. Its individuality parallels the new and astonishing Manueline architecture in which much of it would have been performed.

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.

The third disc in The Sixteen's acclaimed series of Polish music, conducted by Associate Conductor Eamonn Dougan, explores the work of Grzegorz Gerwazy Gorczycki (1665-1734). Regarded as the outstanding Polish composer of the high baroque, Gorczycki studied in Prague and Vienna in his early years, and returned to Krak�w where he was appointed Magister Capellae at Wawel Cathedral in 1698. Like his predecessor Bartlomiej Pekiel (featured on CRO 16110), Gorczycki wrote in both stile antico and stile moderno; the works featured on this recording display his skill in both genres. As the last great talent of the Polish Baroque era, Gorczycki is certainly deserving of a wider audience.

Spirit, Strength & Sorrow, the staggering result of the Sixteen's third collaboration with the Genesis Foundation, demonstrates once again their joint commitment to nurturing new artistic talent. This CD features three brand-new settings of the Stabat Mater from emerging composers Alissa Firsova, T�nu K�rvits, and Matthew Martin alongside those by Claudio Casciolini and Domenico Scarlatti.

The famous Hilliard Ensemble presents a live tribute to the late fifteenth-century master composer Antoine Brumel, who was one of the most influential composers of his generation. This disc is the third of four live discs by The Hilliard Ensemble to be released on CORO. The first disc – Pérotin and the Ars Antiqua - has recently won a Diapason D’Or.

This is the third volume from the medieval Eton Choirbook collection which survived Henry VIII’s ransacking of the monasteries. Thanks to its survival, the sacred music of the English fifteenth-century is still with us, conjuring up the atmosphere and spirit of the glorious Cathedrals for which it was written. It also gives a tantalising glimpse of a wealth of choral music which was lost.

This disc is the first of five volumes of the award-winning Eton Choirbook Series on CORO. The series offers a tantalising glimpse of fifteenth century sacred English Choral Music, saved from Henry VIII’s ransacking of the monasteries. Miraculously, the Eton Choirbook survived Henry VIII’s ransacking of the monasteries. Thanks to its survival, the sacred music of the English fifteenth-century is still with us, conjuring up the atmosphere and spirit of the glorious cathedrals for which it was written. It also gives a tantalising glimpse of a wealth of choral music which was lost.

CORO is proud to introduce �CORO Connections,� a new series that will feature all of their guest artists! All featured artists have links to Harry Christophers and The Sixteen, and the first disc features two of Harry�s colleagues from the Handel & Haydn Society: Susanna Ogata (violin) and Ian Watson (fortepiano). Using period instruments for which the music was originally written, Watson and Ogata strive to reveal not only the clarity of Beethoven�s extraordinary musical structure, but also an amazing palette of colors. In doing so, the duo aims to recreate the white-hot intensity of the moment these striking sonatas were first performed.

This release is the second of four installments which will record Susanna Ogata and Ian Watson performing the complete Sonatas for Fortepiano and Violin of Ludwig van Beethoven. Watson and Ogata use period instruments, revealing the beauty and clarity of these works in the way they were originally conceived by the composer. "Exhilarating... Ogata and Watson's urgent, dramatic readings benefit from the clarity of period instruments and generate excitement in each of the opening movements... Their buoyant rhythmic sense enlivens the finales." (The Strad on Volume 1)

Opus 18 needs little introduction and is often revered as demonstrating Beethoven's total mastery of the Classical String Quartet. The Eybler Quartet completes it's exploration of these iconic quartets in an album that showcases radiantly Beethoven's fiendishly difficult tempi and his genius for finding contrast within a single pulse as well as highlighting the depths of his humour, wit and irony. The Eybler Quartet came together in 2004 to explore the works of the first century -and-a-half of the string quartet and plays on instruments appropriate to the period of the music it performs. The Toronto-based ensemble's live performances have consistently garnered praise as "glowing and committed", "spirited" and "lively and energizing". The Eybler Quartet harnesses a unique combination of talents and skills: razor-sharp ensemble skills, technical prowess, expertise in period instrument performance and an unquenchable passion for the repertoire. The group's five other recordings feature world premieres of Eybler's Opus 1, world premieres of Backofen quintets coupled with Mozart's clarinet quintet featuring Jane Booth, Haydn's six quartets Op. 33, the world premiere of Johann Baptist Vanhal's op. 6 on period instruments and volume one of Beethoven's Opus 18 the companion to the present album.

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)

The 500th anniversary of the death of Leonardo da Vinci falls on May 2, 2019. Probably the greatest polymath of all time, Leonardo was also a musician and revered music as the only serious rival for his divine 'science' of painting. Marking this significant anniversary and the legacy of this forward-thinking 'Renaissance Man, ' I Fagiolini combines art, music and science in Leonardo: Shaping the Invisible, a major new touring and recording project conceived with Leonardo expert Professor Martin Kemp. Inspired by Leonardo's relentless curiosity, 'Shaping the Invisible' explores his best-loved images through the prism of music by Tallis, Howells, Victoria, Bach, Monteverdi, Janequin, and more. The project also includes a new commission from composer Adrian Williams and Gillian Clarke, the former National Poet of Wales, provoked by Leonardo's scientific discoveries. In true I Fagiolini style, there are a few post-production surprises in store, whilst the concert tour includes projections of Leonardo's beautiful art.