The Sixteen

Now, in its 13th year, The Choral Pilgrimage stands as testament to Harry Christophers’ ongoing mission to bring a wide variety of sacred music back to the kind of buildings for which it was written.

Allegri’s Miserere is the single most famous piece of sacred music ever written. Although it is instantly recognisable with its haunting tones, mythology surrounds it. This year’s Choral Pilgrimage allows Harry Christophers to explore its evolution and enduring appeal. This new version of the Allegri Miserere entitled ‘Its Evolution’ as performed on the Pilgrimage has been recorded and appears on this disc.

James MacMillan dedicated his powerful and emotional setting of the Miserere to Harry Christohers and The Sixteen who premiered the work in 2010 and recorded it shortly afterwards. Alongside Allegri, MacMillan is one of the few composer to ever set the full Miserere to music. His exquisite version is one of the highlights of this year’s programme.

Arguably the greatest composer of liturgical music of all time Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina is often billed as ‘The Prince of Music’ and by some ‘The Saviour of Church Music’. The 2013 tour includes some of his wonderful music for Easter including the Stabat Mater a8 and excerpts from the Missa Regina caeli.

The last of three volumes of The Sixteen’s series devoted to Monteverdi’s Selva morale e spirituale.

Without doubt, Monteverdi was the greatest of the early baroque European composers. He revolutionised the music of the theatre and the church by his dramatic and imaginative use of voices and instruments and by his daring harmonies and rhythms. Next to his Vespers of 1610, the Selva morale e spirituale of 1641 is his most significant and virtuosic collection of sacred music. Monteverdi stretches every singer’s versatility to the limit in this demanding but exhilarating music. Included on this final volume are the eight part Magnificat (Primo) - one of the most impressive of all Monteverdi’s settings with the added richness of doubling strings; the old style Credidi and Memento featuring the full choir; and the exquisitely beautiful soprano solo, Pianto della Madonna ‘Iam moriar, mi fili’, performed here by Grace Davidson.

A towering figure in Renaissance polyphony, Palestrina is arguably one of the greatest composers of Liturgical music of all time. Harry Christophers and The Sixteen continue their exploration of his work with a disc of music for the Easter period.

Many of the works on this new recording celebrate the joyful part of Easter - the Resurrection - and the central mass on this disc is the wonderfully inspired Missa Regina caeli. The Mass is based on the well-known, immediately recognisable, plainchant Antiphon Regina caeli and the recording also includes the 8-voice motet of the same name.

As with volumes 1 and 2 this disc also includes three of Palestrina’s settings of the Song of Songs alongside three offertories for the Easter period and the hymn Ad caenam agni providi.

This disc would not be complete, however, without the exquisite 8-voice Stabat Mater - possibly Palestrina’s most famous piece in current times and a work that emphasises the other side of the Easter story - the agony and pain of the Crucifixion.

A number of the works from Palestrina Volume 3 will feature in The Choral Pilgrimage 2013 alongside Miserere settings by Allegri and MacMillan (both of which are available on the CORO label).

Following the success of the first volume in their Palestrina series which won the International Classical Music Award for Early Music, Harry Christophers and The Sixteen release the second recording in the series which has a Christmas theme.

Palestrina was born in 1525 not far from Rome, in the town whose name he bore and from which we take the cover images for this series of discs.

Possibly the greatest composer of liturgical music of all time, Palestrina was a towering figure in Renaissance polyphony. Choral singers world-wide will know his Missa Papae Marcelli (recorded by The Sixteen on COR16014) as, without doubt, it is the most renowned of Palestrina’s works and possibly the most famous mass of all time.

Each volume in this series is based around a single mass and theme relevant to that mass, in this case the Nativity and the festive Motet and Mass Hodie Christus Natus Est. The mass features alongside some of his settings of the Song of Songs as well as the Magnificat Quinti toni and Motet O magnum mysterium.

Celebrating the serene mysticism of the music of Estonian composer Arvo Pärt, this 2CD collection brings together his best known works (such as the ever-popular Spiegel im Spiegel) , with lesser known masterpieces (such as the haunting Burns setting My Heart’s in the Highlands).

Largely drawn from the Decca and Deutsche Grammophon catalogues, this collection includes seven brand new recordings with Nigel Short conducting the award-winning Tenebrae in Cantate Domino and the English Chamber Orchestra in orchestral works including the famous Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten – an outstanding example of Pärt’s ‘tintinnabulation’ style.

Without doubt, Monteverdi was the greatest of the early baroque European composers. He revolutionised the music of the theatre and the church by his dramatic and imaginative use of voices and instruments and by his daring harmonies and rhythms. Next to his Vespers of 1610, the Selva morale e spirituale of 1641 is his most significant and virtuosic collection of sacred music. This second volume of The Sixteen’s celebrated series includes the Messa à 4 da cappella.

Josquin, Brumel and Lassus were truly European composers, leaving their origins to work in the top establishments of Aix-en-Provence, Ferrara, Rome and Munich. Their music has a unique sonority which will astound you all - from the depth of expression and fascinating texts of Josquin (prepare yourselves for the surreal nature of Praeter rerum seriem) to the overtly decorative mass movements of Brumel’s Missa Et ecce terraemotus where the 12 parts interweave in extensive imitation and thrilling tracery, culminating in the extraordinary harmonic stillness of Lassus’s Timor et tremor and his gorgeously evocative 12-part setting of Aurora lucis rutilat.

Continuing their work with Scotland’s most prominent living composer, James MacMillan, Harry Christophers and The Sixteen will release the premiere recording of his exquisite new work Miserere for the CORO label in November.

The Sixteen’s UK premiere of the Miserere at the 2010 Spitalfields Festival won both public and critical acclaim. Based on Psalm 51, the Miserere mei has been set to music many times over the centuries but few composers have tackled the complete text. Allegri was one such composer, whose reputation rests on that single work. CORO is delighted to release the first recording of James MacMillan’s 21st-century take on the text.

The group is renowned for its work with the Scottish composer, and his O bone Jesu - a piece composed especially for The Sixteen and written in emulation of his countryman Robert Carver’s 19-voice O bone Jesu - was part of the ensemble’s 2002 and 2009 Choral Pilgrimage tours and features on this new CD.

The disc also contains a selection of The Strathclyde Motets and the Tenebrae Responsories.