The Sixteen
Harry Christophers and his group The Sixteen are the voices of Classic FM.
At the heart of the partnership is a shared desire to build new audiences for classical music and choral music in particular. Under the inspirational leadership of Harry Christophers, The Sixteen has developed from its roots as a group of Oxford graduates passionate about the choral tradition to one of the world's most brilliantly honed chamber choirs.
After thirty years of world-wide performance and recording, The Sixteen is recognised as one of the world’s greatest ensembles.
Comprising both choir and period-instrument orchestra, The Sixteen's total commitment to the music it performs is its greatest distinction. Its special reputation for performing early English polyphony, masterpieces of the Renaissance, bringing fresh insights into Baroque and early Classical music and a diversity of 20th-century music, is drawn from the passions of conductor and founder, Harry Christophers.
This year the group launches an exciting new training programme for young singers called Genesis Sixteen. Aimed at 18 to 23 year-olds, this is the UK’s first fully-funded choral programme for young singers designed specifically to bridge the gap from student to professional practitioner.
The Sixteen in Concert
The Sixteen’s Choral Pilgrimage 2011 tour, featuring music by Spanish Renaissance composer Tomás Luis de Victoria, got off to a great start last week in Oxford and Norwich. Check out the following extract from Richard Morrison’s review in The Times
“Choral connoisseurs know that they can rely on the Sixteen for flawless intonation, clean yet warm textures and a mix of voices that is well-balanced without being homogenised into a sterile mush... More than that, Christophers’ approach to Victoria is particularly persuasive. The astringent dissonances of Byrd, the detailed word-painting of Lassus or the neurotic harmonic jolts of Gesualdo don’t feature so much in this music. Instead, there’s a breathtaking sensuality about the rich, triadic harmonies and a stunning variety of texture, whether it’s two choirs answering each other in ravishing overlapping phrases in the Litaniae Beatae Mariae, or the contrast of high and low voices in the glorious Song of Songs setting, Vidi speciosam. Christophers nurtures these glowing textures with phrasing that constantly seems to surge upwards. Sometimes, as in the ecstatic Gaude Maria Virgo, an entire movement is presented as an emotional as well as an actual crescendo to an ecstatic conclusion. Elsewhere, the music seems caressed as much as articulated. The Qui Tollis section of the Missa Alma Redemptor Mater lilted like a stately dance through the corridors of Heaven. For me the dance could have gone on and on.”
The next leg of the tour includes:
Friday18 March Liverpool Cathedral
Saturday 19 March Blackburn Cathedral
Friday 25 March St John’s College Chapel, Cambridge
Saturday 26 March St Albans Cathedral
Tickets can be booked by calling the National Box Office: 01904 651 485, or online at www.ncem.co.uk .
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