Harry Christophers

The Sixteen, Harry Christophers – Masters of Imitation (2024) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · March 3, 2024 · Comments off

Imitation is the ultimate compliment. To take inspiration from someone else’s work, to borrow and rework it to form another piece…what could be more flattering? This technique, known as ‘parody’, was hugely popular in late 16th-century Europe and Orlande de Lassus was one of its most famous advocates. The Sixteen’s programme showcases the master of parody at work and also features a new commission from the extraordinarily inventive composer Bob Chilcott parodying one of Lassus’ finest secular madrigals.

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The Sixteen & Harry Christophers – Royal Welcome Songs for King Charles II Volume III (2020) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · February 18, 2024 · Comments off

Purcell’s genius abounds throughout the latest volume of The Sixteen’s celebrated exploration of his music for monarchy. Rarely recorded in recent years, Harry Christophers and his award-winning ensemble breathe fresh life into these exquisite works, including two Welcome Songs and one of Purcell’s most famous verse anthems, Rejoice in the Lord alway.

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The Sixteen, Harry Christophers – The Deer’s Cry (2016) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · November 16, 2023 · Comments off

Whilst coming from very different eras, William Byrd and Arvo Pärt are both considered masters of sacred music despite having faced considerable persecution for their work. This programme presents six of William Byrd’s works from the Cantiones Sacrae including the monumental Tribue, Domine, and the mighty eight-voice motet Ad Dominum cum tribularer. The three works by Arvo Pärt speak in his unmistakable voice, with its unique blend of ancient and modern, and include his mesmerising Nunc dimittis which is crafted in his bell-like ‘tinitinnabuli’ style.

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The Sixteen, Harry Christophers – Edmund Rubbra: Sacred Choral Works (2016) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · November 16, 2023 · Comments off

The distinctive style of Edmund Rubbra’s music is unmistakable – his love of counterpoint, his sense of tonality, and his clever working of melody make him stand out from many of his contemporaries. His writing, whilst harmonically challenging and vocally taxing, is also intensely personal and highly charged with emotion – at times mystical, at others seriously dramatic.

Though he is best-known for his orchestral works, choral music was a constant throughout his career, and a genre of particular importance to a composer of strong spiritual conviction.

In this beautiful new recording The Sixteen explores some of his little-known choral music including the extraordinary Tenebrae Nocturns and the Missa Cantuariensis with its fabulous double-choir writing.

This album also features the first recording of the Responses from the Missa Cantuariensis.

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The Sixteen, Harry Christophers – Song of the Nativity (2016) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · November 15, 2023 · Comments off

The Sixteen contrasts the dramatic intensity of music by some of today’s most admired composers with such traditional and modern carols as Boris Ord’s Adam lay ybounden and Henry Walford Davies’ version of O little town of Bethlehem. Much-loved modern classics including John Rutter’s There is a flower, Morten Lauridsen’s O magnum mysterium and James MacMillan’s O radiant dawn also appear on this beautiful album and there are many others which, in the course of time, will also become classics; every one of them by their unashamed simplicity, captures the joy and sincerity of this most wonderful of seasons. This album provides a perfect peaceful and uplifting antidote to the hectic pre-Christmas rush.

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The Sixteen, Harry Christophers – Poetry in Music (2015) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · November 15, 2023 · Comments off

Does music add substance to words or is music inspired by them? Songs of departure and farewell are deeply rooted in the great tradition of British choral music, nourished by ancient myths of testing journeys, wayside transformations and homecomings. The transcendent nature of music and the power of poetry to challenge and alter perceptions of reality – harnessed by English composers over many centuries – flow through a programme that invites contemplation of life and death, of love and loss, creation and eternity. In a journey covering six centuries of musical history, The Sixteen performs a cappella anthems with powerful texts by writers as varied as Edmund Spenser, Christopher Fry and W.H. Auden.

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The Sixteen & Harry Christophers – Royal Welcome Songs for King Charles II Volume II (2019) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · November 14, 2023 · Comments off

King Charles II liked to project a strong, stable, divinely legitimated image. Whilst that image had no basis in reality, the scale of his deception and financial skulduggery did not emerge until 19th-century historians discovered secret treaty documents between Charles and King Louis XIV of France. Purcell had no idea of course, and so all of the music on this album celebrates the political triumphs that he and his colleagues thought they had witnessed. It includes the quite brilliant Welcome Songs ‘Welcome to all the pleasures’ (with its superb six-part fanfares to St Cecilia in the final chorus) and ‘From hardy climes’.

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The Sixteen, Harry Christophers – Royal Welcome Songs for King James II (2017) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · November 13, 2023 · Comments off

Despite being written for the celebration of royal occasions, Purcells Royal Welcome Songs were penned during a time of immense disillusionment with the monarchy. Filled with humour as well as an ironic detachment from the politics of the time, Ye tuneful muses and Sound the trumpet fizz with the dramatic energy which characterised his later operas and mark a crucial turning point in Purcells career. This programme showcases the variety and diversity of Purcells writing, opening with the Chacony in G minor, which is among the great glories of music for strings, and including When on my sick bed I languish – an amazingly impassioned piece in which he bares his soul…quintessential Purcell!

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The Sixteen & Harry Christophers – Good Night, Beloved (2021) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · November 12, 2023 · Comments off

Escapism is the idea behind this latest offering from Harry Christophers and The Sixteen, and while that’s certainly an apt concept for 2021 thus far, you don’t need to be craving escapism in order to appreciate its contents.

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The Sixteen & Harry Christophers – Palestrina, Vol. 7 (2017) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · November 12, 2023 · Comments off

The Sixteen continues its exploration of Palestrina’s great art with the eagerly anticipated seventh album in the series which includes the Missa Ave Regina caelorum

Palestrina is perhaps the most famous of all Renaissance composers, certainly by name. By his death his reputation outshone all others. His musical legacy is prodigious even by the standards of the time – he wrote over 100 Masses – and he was the first Renaissance composer to have a complete edition of almost his whole output published in modern notation. Today some pieces are quite familiar, others less so, and much of his superb music is almost unknown. The seventh recording in The Sixteen’s celebrated series focuses on some of the pivotal women in Christian history – Mary the mother of Jesus, Mary Magdalene, St Barbara and Susannah.

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The Sixteen, Harry Christophers – Monteverdi: Messa a quattro voci et salmi of 1650, Vol. I (2016) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · November 12, 2023 · Comments off

Monteverdi’s sacred vocal compositions introduced the expression of powerful and personal emotions to the world of church music. Whilst it took him a number of years to find fulfilment in his work, Monteverdi was a revered composer within his lifetime and his music is regarded as revolutionary, marking the change from the Renaissance style to that of the Baroque. This album comprises some of the finest works from Monteverdi’s years as director of music at St Mark’s in Venice, published posthumously in 1650 as the Messa a quattro voci et salmi.

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The Sixteen & Harry Christophers – A Renaissance Christmas (2018) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · November 12, 2023 · Comments off

The Sixteen explores a stunning collection of festive works from the Renaissance capturing the joy and sincerity of this most wonderful of seasons. From the delightful simplicity of plainsong chants Resonemus laudibus and Veni, veni Emmanuel to the shining purity of Lassus’ polyphonic Videntes stellam Magi and Byrd’s jubilant This day Christ was born, this album provides a perfect alternative to traditional carols for those looking for something a little different at Christmas.

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The Sixteen, Harry Christophers – An Old Belief (2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · October 6, 2023 · Comments off

The Sixteen, Harry Christophers - An Old Belief (2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz] Download

Avec “An Old Belief”, les chanteurs de The Sixteen – ensemble vocal toujours parmi l’un des plus plébiscités au monde – nous montrent durant une heure et quart qu’ils peuvent couvrir cinq siècles de musique avec grâce et naturel. Fort de plus de quarante ans d’existence, le choeur fondé par Harry Christophers qui officie toujours aux commandes impressionne par la qualité constante de ses interprétations, quel que soit le répertoire concerné.
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The Sixteen, Harry Christophers – Sirens’ Song (2023) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · September 25, 2023 · Comments off

What would singing be without words? When you combine wonderful poetry with exquisite music, the result is magical. In a rare break from the sacred collections they are famed for, this album from The Sixteen features a whole programme of secular music devoted to English partsongs. From Stanford’s cycle of Eight Partsongs based on the sparing yet infectious poetry of Mary Elizabeth Coleridge to Bridges’ lyrically descriptive writing in Finzi’s Seven Poems of Robert Bridges and Imogen Holst’s idyllic Six Part-Songs Welcome Joy and Welcome Sorrow using verses by John Keats, each setting captures the mood of the poem brilliantly.

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The Sixteen, Harry Christophers – Palestrina, Vol. 9 (2023) [Official Digital Download 24bit/192kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · June 26, 2023 · Comments off

Palestrinas music is exquisite and sumptuous? characterised by a richness of texture and purity of sound. From his sacred Masses to settings of the secular Song of Songs, The Sixteen brings this serene and delicate soundworld to sparkling life. Palestrina was a towering figure in Renaissance polyphony and arguably the greatest composer of liturgical music of all time. For nearly half a millennium his legacy and impact on sacred music worldwide has been second to none. The Sixteen continues its acclaimed series exploring a selection of his massive output, with this volume featuring the richly sonorous Missa Ut re mi fa sol la at its heart. The Sixteen also shines a spotlight on some of the glorious music Palestrina wrote for St John the Baptist and St John the Evangelist.

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