Today's CD Review on BBC Radio 3

Too soon to put up an iPlayer link as the programme is still going on, but there was a great sequence of Spanish and Mexican choral music at the start of today's CD Review, including our own new recording of Victoria.

PHILIPPE ROGIER: Missa Domine Dominus Noster; Missa Domine in Virtute Tue etc.
Magnificat / His Majestys Sagbutts and Cornetts / Philip Cave (director)
Linn CKD 348 (Hybrid SACD)

“Hail, Mother of the Redeemer”
VICTORIA: Salve Regina; Missa Alma Redemptoris Mater etc.
The Sixteen / Harry Christophers (conductor)
Coro COR16088 (CD)

“O Virgo Benedicta”: Music of Marian Devotion
The Marian Consort / Rory McCleery (conductor)
DCD34086 (CD)

“Hanacpachap”: Latin American music at the time of the Conquistadores
Ensemble Elyma / Gabriel Garrido (conductor)
Pan Classics PC 10230 (CD)

The Choir on BBC Radio 3

When a list of the world's greatest choirs appeared in Gramophone magazine there was no shortage of controversy about who did, and did not, make the cut. On The Choir on BBC Radio 3 tonight at 6.45pm (and then available on iPlayer) Aled Jones picks his way through recordings by the top ten ensembles, and also takes a look at a rival list of no fewer than 1000 choirs. Plus, listeners share their own suggestions of groups who perhaps missed out. Hear a William Byrd track from CORO 16077 by The Sixteen, (and some other choirs...........!).

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.