James MacMillan: 'The 'creative artists' who attacked BP and the Tate do not speak for me'

James MacMillan has entered the debate about BP's arts sponsorship, with a typically hard-hitting article in today's Telegraph: 'When I read that 171 artists had written to the Guardian attacking Tate Britain for accepting sponsorship money from BP, I couldn’t decide whether they were just being stupid, gesturally romantic in true luvvy style, or downright hypocritical. They were certainly being presumptuous in the implication that the arts community (whatever that is) would support them.

I for one, do not, and I know many others involved in culture who would profoundly disagree with their luddite, eco-fascist utopianism.'

Here's a link to the complete article and one to James' own recently started blog.

LondonJazz review

Great review on the LondonJazz blog of our Monteverdi concert last Friday. Sebastian Scotney wrote: 'The trickiest, the most high-wire of the performances was "Che vol che m'innamori." Time and again Julian Joseph on piano and Mark Hodgson on bass pared the volume down, in order to hand over to the the two quietest instruments on the stage: the chittarone of David Miller or/and the harp of Frances Kelly. For my ears, it was Kelly's faultless judgment of the precise length of the silence to leave before taking over the story from Julian Joseph, and her judgment of dynamic and of mood in this piece, which produced the most deeply affecting moment of the evening.' Read the full review here.

Jazz meets Monteverdi on Radio 3

BBC Radio 3 recorded our two Monteverdi concerts at the Spitalfields Festival last night for broadcast on Performance on 3 next Friday 2 July at 7.00pm. Reaction to our collaboration with Julian Joseph was excellent, and there was a stimulating discussion afterwards with members of the audience who wanted to unpick the perennial problem of how jazz musicians 'do jazz' and how you go on to combine its freedom and improvisiation with structured, notated music. What was remarkable was how our continuo section relished the occasion!

Julian Joseph joins The Sixteen

Two more concerts at the Spitalfields Festival tonight: pure Monteverdi at 6.30pm (sold out) and then at 8.30pm our Monteverdi collaboration with jazz pianist Julian Joseph, who has also established himself as a jazz pioneer in the classical world. He was the first jazz musician to be invited to give a series of all-acoustic concerts at London's most prestigious classical venue, the Wigmore Hall. He has recorded duets by Milhaud, Stravinsky and Poulenc with Brazilian pianist Marcelo Bratke, combining them with his own arrangements of music by Duke Ellington, Chick Corea and Bill Evans, and collaborated with concert violinist Viktoria Mullova on her fusion project, 'Through the Looking Glass'. As a soloist, he has given recitals of Bartók and Prokofiev sonatas and performed Gershwin's Piano Concerto in F and the Rhapsody in Blue with some of the most renowned symphony orchestras in Europe. At the same time, Julian's own classically-oriented work never ventures too far away from his jazz focus. This is particularly evident in his writing for big band and strings or full symphony orchestra, in which he demonstrates an exceptional ability to orchestrate complex textures of rhythm and sound without losing the essential groove that is at the heart of jazz.

In this way he is ever pushing the boundaries, whilst building on the legacy of the great jazz composers ~ Duke Ellington, Gil Evans, Herbie Hancock and Jaco. The bass player tonight is Mark Hodgson. Details here (a few tickets still available as I write).

'Hello, Harry'

Hotfoot back from Christ Church Spitalfields where, as part of festival residency, The Sixteen has been giving a specially designed introduction to Monteverdi's music to 400+ primary schoolchildren from Tower Hamlets. It is not every audience which greets the conductor with a yell of 'Hello, Harry', and then gets on with singing Monteverdi.

City Church of Christ the Cornerstone

The Choral Pilgrimage pays its first visit to Milton Keynes on 2 July, with a concert at the City Church of Christ the Cornerstone. We are getting lots of calls about this concert, but I am afraid it is already sold-out. An intriguing building, it is an ecumenical church, opened in 1992 and dedicated by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Reverend and Right Honourable George Carey (Anglican); His Eminence Cardinal Basil Hume, Archbishop of Westminster (Roman Catholic); the Reverend Desmond Pemberton, Assistant National Superintendent, Wesleyan Holiness Church; and the Reverend Dr John Newton, Chairman, Liverpool District Methodist Church (the Presidents of Churches Together in England). The Queen attended the Dedication service: a Roman Catholic Cardinal gave the sermon before the reigning monarch - the first time this had happened in over 400 years. An interesting anecdote given the history behind our Tudor repertoire this year.

James MacMillan at Spitalfields

Erica Jeal in the Guardian enjoyed the first evening of our residency at the Spitalfields Festival: you can read her review here. Tomorrow night we give the first UK performance of James MacMillan's Miserere. We gave the first performance in Antwerp last August. It is a signficant addition to James' deeply-felt, deeply spiritual series of choral works. The programme includes works by Palestrina and Aenerio, and Allegri's famous setting of Psalm 51, Miserere mei.

Tickets: +44 20 7377 1362.

The Nation's Favourite Aria?

Much as we at The Sixteen love the works of Henry Purcell, it does seem rather bizarre that Dido's Lament has just been voted the Nation's Favourite Aria in a recent BBC Radio 3 poll. Setting aside the argument of whether or not Dido and Aeneas is an opera, looking at the results it could be that a special interest group has been in action! Anyway, you can find details of our Purcell recordings here.

Membra Jesu Nostri

Buxtehude's stunning work Membra Jesu Nostri features on one of our recent CD releases on CORO. This cantata cycle is a unique work. Based on texts from a medieval Latin hymn, ‘Salve mundi salutare’, the cycle contains seven cantatas each dedicated to a different part of Christ’s crucified body. The texts are based on the concept of an observer contemplating Christ’s body on the cross starting with his feet and moving up to his knees, hands, side, breast, heart and finally his head. Buxtehude plays cleverly with musical colours and textures and changes the mixture of voices and instruments to dramatic effect as the work develops.

Soloists Carolyn Sampson, Libby Crabtree, Robin Blaze, James Gilchrist and Simon Birchall are directed by Harry Christophers.

This CD and all our other releases are available from our online shop.

From Norwich to Spitalfields

Another busy weekend for The Sixteen, with a sold-out Choral Pigrimage concert in Norwich Cathedral on Saturday, and then 17 mini-concerts in Silkweavers' Cottages in Spitalfields yesterday, our first project as Associate Artists at this year's Festival. Four groups of performers played in four houses for four audiences, who walked between the various venues, and then all coming together for a final event, performing pieces from John Dowland's A Pilgrim's Solace. Our next concert at the Festival is on Friday evening and includes the UK premiere of James MacMillan's Miserere.