Thursday, 23 December 2010

Catherine of Aragon


Peterborough Cathedral, 29 January 2011, 7.30pm

An a capella programme of music by Cornysh, Taverner, Sheppard, Morales and Victoria. This event is in association with the Catherine of Aragon weekend celebrations; the 16th-century repertoire is focused around composers writing at the time of Catherine of Aragon in England and Spain.

Tickets: 01733 452 336

Tuesday, 7 December 2010

A Christmas break in Versailles


It's good to get some coverage in the non-music sections of the press - the Telegraph has recommended our Versailles performance of Messiah on 22 December in their travel pages. If you can't be in Paris then our Messiah CD-set is available directly from our website, along with many other possible stocking fillers!>

Friday, 29 October 2010

Allegri on BBC4 tonight

Our Sacred Music programme on Allegri's Miserere is being shown again on BBC 4 tonight at 8.30pm. Presented by Simon Russell Beale, it features a complete performance of the work. Harry Christophers conducts and Andy Robbins directs.

Thursday, 21 October 2010

BBC Radio 3's Early Music Show


Listen to BBC Radio 3's Early Music Show on Saturday at 13.00, when Lucie Skeaping visits the Sallis Benney Theatre at Brighton University, as part of this year's Brighton Early Music Festival. She's joined by Eamonn Dougan and Sally Dunkley to talk about our Choral Pilgrimage. There will be live music from three young ensembles: The Artisans, I Flautisti and Ensemble Amaranthos.

Monday, 18 October 2010

Pilgrimage reaches Brighton


A great review from Friday's concert in Durham. There areonly two more opportunities to hear the 2010 Choral Pilgrimage programme, the next being on Friday in Brighton in the splendid St Batholomew's Church.

Tuesday, 12 October 2010

Durham Cathedral


Next stop on the Choral Pilgrimage is Durham Cathedral on Friday 15th at 7.30pm. It is renowned as a masterpiece of Romanesque architecture. It was begun in 1093 and largely completed within 40 years. It is the only cathedral in England to retain almost all of its Norman craftsmanship, and one of few to preserve the unity and integrity of its original design. And it has a fabulous acoustic and is one of the favourite places on our UK tour. Music by Sheppard, Byrd and Tallis, with a few tickets still available from 01904 651485.

Monday, 27 September 2010

Discovering Music


BBC Radio 3 features The Sixteen in the current Discovering Music programme, unravelling some of the works in our Choral Pilgrimage programme. Catherine Bott explores some of the joys of English polyphony with Harry Christophers, Sally Dunkley and The Sixteen in an exploration of music by Byrd, Tallis and Sheppard. The programme was recorded at the National Centre for Early Music in York as part of the 2010 York Early Music Festival and unpicks some of the working and ideas behind three contrasting masterpieces from 16th century English chuch music. William Byrd's "Infelix Ego" is a meditation on Psalm 50 written by the Italian friar Girolamo Savonarola shortly before his execution for heresy.

Thomas Tallis's short but intensely expressive "Miserere Nostri" is an intricate web of musical games and devices around the words "have mercy on us lord, have mercy on us".

Finally John Sheppard's "Media Vita" is a setting of plainsong and text based around the Nunc Dimittis, the traditional song for evening prayer, composed by Sheppard on an uniquely grand scale.

Harry Christophers, the director of The Sixteen, and Sally Dunkley who sings with the group and prepares many of The Sixteen's editions, discuss and illustrate with Catherine Bott some of musical thinking behind these pieces.

Listen here (until 3 October).

Saturday, 18 September 2010

Wells Cathedral

There are worse ways to spend a Saturday morning than gazing for a couple of hours at the West Front of Wells Cathedral (alternating with staring at the laptop screen). Our Choral Pilgrimage hotel here is The Swan, which has a spectacular view from its lounge. The present cathedral was begun around 1180, on a new site to the north of the old. Started nearly 10 years before Lincoln and more than 40 years before Salisbury, Wells was the first English cathedral to be built throughout with the pointed arch, shafted column and ribbed vault of the Gothic style. A great setting for last night's packed concert. Off to Tewkesbury now.

Monday, 13 September 2010

Stained glass windows in Swansea

Four Choral Pilgrimage concerts coming up this week, in Swansea, Wells, Tewkesbury and St Asaph. The Collegiate and Parish Church of St Mary in Swansea has a fine collection of stained glass windows, including the Millenium Window by Martin Donlin.
My other favourites are John Edwards' Baptistry Window:And finally, John Piper's Creation window:


Tickets for Swansea (16th), Wells (17th) and Tewkesbury (18th) are available from the National Centre for Early Music on 01904 651485 and for St Asaph (19th) from the North Wales International Music Festival box-office on 01745 584508.
Limited availability for all four concerts.

Thursday, 9 September 2010

Marketing classical music

How can the classical music industry reach new audiences? Jon Jacob speaks to marketeers from three London orchestras and writer and broadcaster Tom Service to find out, in an interesting discussion from the BBC Proms background series on YouTube.

Monday, 6 September 2010

Recent TV coverage in France

France 3 video news item about our recent concert in St Paulien during the Chaise-Dieu festival; the chap from the Mairie made a brilliant speech at the post-concert reception which for a long while seemed to be about the opening of a new swimming-pool - had he got the wrong speech out of his pocket, we wondered? But no, with the panache of a French philosopher, he was making the point that both physical and mental culture were crucial in these straightened times and that the French must continue to invest in culture - I can't say I've heard many local politicians in the UK say the same.

Friday, 3 September 2010

Returns only at Southwell Minster tonight

The Choral Pilgrimage moves on tonight to Southwell Minster. The concert is sold out, although there might be a few returns at the door. There are still tickets available for tomorrow night's performance in another magnificent building, Peterborough Cathedral. Tickets available from 01733 452336.

We have a big party of Art Fund members coming tonight, and we are delighted that our partnership is working fruitfully.

We are recently back from the festival in La Chaise-Dieu, where we gave the French premiere of James MacMillan's Miserere in the beautiful Saint Georges de Saint Paulien near Le Puy. Great response from the audience and a splendid post-concert champagne reception at the Mairie. Brought back down to earth the following morning by a 3-hour delay on our BA flight back from Lyon..............

Monday, 23 August 2010

Arthur's Seat (before Purcell)


So, our Victoria and Padilla concert went down well in Edinburgh last Friday evening. Can't remember when I last heard Victoria whooped - at least this bodes well for our all-Victoria programme on next year's Choral Pilgrimage, when we mark the 400th anniversary of his death.

A larger group go up to Edinburgh this evening for Purcell's Indian Queen tomorrow at the Usher Hall, with a great team of soloists: Gillian Keith, Katherine Manley, Robin Blaze, John Mark Ainsley, Allan Clayton and Roderick Williams.

Not sure what it is about The Sixteen and walking, but, having only recently completed the Choral Pilgrimage, several of the choir plan to tackle Arthur's Seat in the monring.

Friday, 20 August 2010

Puebla meets Edinburgh


Not blogged from the BlackBerry before, so I hope this works. Just an hour until our first concert at this year's Edinburgh International Festival. Padilla and Victoria. Long sold out, but there are still a few seats left for our Purcell Indian Queen here next Tuesday. We have a 5-strong continuo section today with two theorbos, harp, dulcian and organ. So, a spectacular hour coming up in, as it were, Puebla Cathedral!

Tuesday, 3 August 2010

Wife of Bath completes Walk

And so, The Sixteen's Choral Pilgrimage Charity Walk comes to an end. Welcomed by the Dean of Canterbury and with a short ceremony at Thomas à Becket's memorial, followed by a splendid lunch, the core team of walkers were joined yesterday by some 12 other supporters of The Sixteen. Countertenor Ian Aitkenhead had canvassed opinion on which of the Chaucer's pilgrims he should dress up as for the final leg, and, perhaps not surprisingly, the Wife of Bath won the vote.

Yuo can still donate to the two charities The Sixteen has been supporting: World Vision and the Save Canterbury Cathedral appeal. If you would like to sponsor the walk go to our special Just Giving pages: World Vision and Canterbury Cathedral.

Monday, 2 August 2010

Tribute to Alfred Deller


The Choral Pilgrimage Charity Walk paused at All Saints' Church in Boughton Aluph yesterday, where the walkers were greeted by Mark Deller, son of the great countertenor Alfred Deller, who is buried in the churchyard. Three of The Sixteen's regular countertenors were there (Christopher Royall, Ian Aitkenhead and David Clegg) and, for them in particular, there was a poignant moment when the assembled company sang Purcell's Thou Knowest Lord around Deller's grave. The Walk reaches its destination at Canterbury Cathedral early this afternoon: we in the office will be heading off soon to greet them.

Saturday, 31 July 2010

Bearsted to Lenham (to Edinburgh)

Not sure what the weather is like in Kent today, but I suspect the Choral Pilgrimage Charity Walk is having a damp morning as it wends from Bearsted to Lenham. Donations to the two charitie we are supporting continue to come in: World Vision and the Save Canterbury Cathedral appeal. If you would like to sponsor the walk go to our special Just Giving pages: World Vision and Canterbury Cathedral.
I thought the sunny, Latin American picture the Edinburgh International Festival is using to market our concerts there towards the end of next month might brighten the walkers' morning. We have concerts on the 20th (sold out) and 24th August. Tickets are still available for Purcell's Indian Queen.

Thursday, 29 July 2010

Weight of Victoria

Countertenor Christopher Royall leads the Chroal Pilgrimage Charity Walk, as it wends its way towards Canterbury. Big day today: 20 miles from Otford to Rochester. The Sixteen is raising money for two charities (not itself!): World Vision and the Save Canterbury Cathedral appeal. If you would like to sponsor the walk go to our special Just Giving pages: World Vision and Canterbury Cathedral. Lots more photos here.

Things concert audiences don't really think about: no. 1. How do we get the music for our concerts to the right place at the right time? I was thinking about the logistics as I dragged 30kg of Victoria from Cambridge to Fleet Street this morning. Our library is now huge and constantly expanding; not yet of British Library or UL size, but still requiring a catalogue and a system. We never let music go in the hold on flights on the way to concerts or during tours (you can perform without the right dress, but not without music) so the singers take care of their own sets, but it all has to be collected in the end and brought home for sorting, repairing and re-shelving. Some more thoughts on this from our Librarian in a few weeks................

Wednesday, 28 July 2010

Walk passes Chevening

The walkers have just passed the village of Chevening: you can see the church amongst the trees, and just pick out Chevening House which is the traditional grace-and-favour residence of the Foreign Secretary. This, however, being a Coalition, it's now a house-share - William Hague and the Deputy Prime Minister..... Onwards.

New Mozart Mass in C recording on CORO


Whilst the Choral Pilgrimage Charity Walk continues apace (12.5 miles today, from Oxted to Otford) we are pleased to announce a new strand of recordings on our label CORO: Harry's first recording with his 'other' group, the Handel and Haydn Society in Boston. Classic FM has written about this new venture.

Monday, 26 July 2010

Choral Pilgrimage Charity Walk - Day Two


The Sixteen's Choral Pilgrimage Charity Walk enters its second day today. Harry and the other walkers left Box Hill this morning, heading along the North Downs Way towards Mertsham. They started from Guildford Cathedral yesterday and will reach Canterbury Cathedral in a week's time. The Sixteen is raising money for two charities (not itself!): World Vision and the Save Canterbury Cathedral appeal. If you would like to sponsor the walk go to our special Just Giving pages: World Vision and Canterbury Cathedral.

Tuesday, 20 July 2010

The Arts should give up whingeing and start singing for its supper


Interesting (provocative?) article in yesterday's Evening Standard by one of our Development Board members, Chris Blackhurst. All performing arts organisations in the UK are urgently reviewing their funding models. We at The Sixteen are lucky already to attract a considerable amount of private support from individuals, but the challenge is always on to encourage more.

Monday, 19 July 2010

York


York is one of our favourite stops on our Choral Pilgrimage, and we have just had an amazing two day residency there as part of the York Early Music Festival: a concert for primary school children, a BBC Radio 3 Discovering Music recording, a packed-out evening concert in the Minster, and an Insight Day, all based on the music of Sheppard, Byrd and Tallis we are featuring on this year's UK tour. The Insight day set the music in context through lectures and discussions led by Sally Dunkley and John Milsom. John explored the detective work undertaken by musicologists to try and unravel when and for where particular pieces were composed, when the evidence is thin and requires considerable lateral thinking to come to any meaningful conclusions: Thomas Morley was sung in the gardens of the National Early Music centre as part of his explication!

Off to Munich tomorrow for a concert of Victoria in Ingolstadt on Wednesday evening.

Friday, 9 July 2010

Sunday Times free iTunes downloads this and next weekend

A track from our Messiah recording features in a special Sunday Times iTunes free promotion this weekend, when 15 of the top UK orchestras display their recorded wares in an attempt to encourage people to explore music they might not be familiar with. The following week's promotion will include a track from our Samson recording. The Sixteen are joined by the London Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonia, and The London Philharmonic Orchestra amongst others.

Thursday, 8 July 2010

BBC Proms Archive

Check out the newly launched Proms Archive, which you can search by composer, work or artist. My first discovery is that an aria from the work we are doing in Edinburgh next month was first performed in the Proms in 1897:

Wednesday 29 September 1897, 8:00PM

Henry Purcell Indian Queen, Z 630

- Aria 'I attempt from Love's sickness to fly in vain' Act 3

Hirwen Jones tenor


New Queen's Hall Orchestra (1895-1914, Queen's Hall Orchestra)
Henry Wood conductor

Tuesday, 6 July 2010

Monteverdi


Just back from the last recording session for our Monteverdi CD at St John's Smith Square in London - sat in on the ravishing soprano duet Salve Regina, with Elin Manahan Thomas and Grace Davidson and a battery of continuo instruments. The complete Telegraph review of our recent Monteverdi concert performances has just appeared online.

Sunday, 4 July 2010

Things digital...

We are in the studio (well, St John's Smith Square, pictured) for the next few days recording the first of a 3-CD Monteverdi project. Musing yesterday on the vagaries of TV scheduling. Because of the outcome of earlier World Cup rounds yesterday afternoon's Germany v. Argentina match was on BBC 1, which meant the Women's Wimbledon final and subsequent matches were shifted to BBC 2, which meant the 4.05pm repeat of one of our Sacred Music programmes bit the dust.

Friday, 2 July 2010

Magic numbers and some reminders

There is an interesting piece in Tom Service's Guardian blog today on composers and their clandestine codes. Read what he has to say about composers from Bach to John Zorn.

Tonight the Choral Pilgrimage reaches Milton Keynes. The concert is technically sold out but there might be a few returns on the door.

If you are nowhere near Milton Keynes you can hear our Monteverdi concerts from Spitalfields on BBC Radio 3 tonight at 7pm. Petroc Trelawny presents.

Thursday, 1 July 2010

Baroque gets all jazzed up

Ivan Hewett in the Telegraph on our Monteverdi concert with Julian Joseph: 'Time was when the performance of Baroque music was all about "getting it right", but fortunately those days have passed. The "early music" world has woken up to the fact that improvisation and risk-taking are what really bring this music to life. That's also true of many other traditions, and it was only a matter of time before someone tried to mingle the Baroque form of improvisation with another...... In these cross-cultural enterprises one side always calls the shots, and here it was definitely Monteverdi's ravishing sound-world, with its strummed lutes and dancing violins and high sopranos trilling and sighing in ectasy or agony...... It was when the jazz players felt able to ignore their 'charts' and rely on gut instinct that things caught fire. Joseph's harmonic side-shifts and cadences took on his usual energising swing, but also a Monteverdian "sigh" that seemed completely natural. The choir, too, loosened up; in one number there was a flamenco-ish tang at the end of a phrase, which Joseph was able to seize and run with. The final Salve Regina worked best, especially at its final flourish, where Joseph and [bassist] Hodgson spun a superb riff over the concluding cadence. For a work in progress, this was impressive. Let's hope it's only the beginning.'

Wednesday, 30 June 2010

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.

Saturday, 26 June 2010

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.

Friday, 25 June 2010

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!

Thursday, 24 June 2010

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).

Wednesday, 23 June 2010

'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.

Tuesday, 22 June 2010

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.

Thursday, 17 June 2010

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.

Wednesday, 16 June 2010

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.

Tuesday, 15 June 2010

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.

Monday, 14 June 2010

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.