Macmian The Sixteen

This is a close to a "crossover" album as the fine group The Sixteen have ever come. Leaving most of their pure Renaissance and Baroque polyphony aside, here they are abetted by guitarist Kaori Muraji in a series of pieces arranged (by Bob Chilcott) for the CD, most of which, though seeming unlikely, work very well. Pachelbel's Canon is presented wed to a poem by Oscar Wilde and proves hypnotic. Gaspar Fernandes, a 16th-century Portugese composer, is represented by an energetic "A negrito de cucurumbé," featuring two soloists from The Sixteen and percussion. Tomas Luis de Victoria's Alma Redemptoris Mater is presented in two parts: one for soprano and guitar, the other for chorus. There are guitar solos as well.

What could be more welcome than a little repose and respite from the demands of daily life? The works on this album tell stories of life and love, of tranquillity and stillness, some naïve and simple, others infused with complex imagery. This beautiful album features a stunning selection of music spanning over 500 years. From exuberant early works such as Hoyda, hoyda, jolly rutterkin and I am a jolly foster to Will Todd's sublime Whisper Him my name, Maxwell Davies' Lullabye for Lucy, Stanford's glorious The Blue Bird, and a new commission from Roderick Williams, this is truly music to escape to.

Coming on the heels of some rather mediocre efforts, The Sixteen Men of Tain is startlingly superb. Holdsworth has stripped away the distracting banks of keyboards and allowed his soaring, gliding guitar to shine through in a way it hasn't since the 1980s…

English conductor Harry Christophers was educated at the Canterbury Cathedral Choir School and Magdalen College, Oxford. He founded The Sixteen, the choral ensemble with their accompanying instrumental ensemble, in 1977. The Sixteen performs with an emphasis on early English polyphony, but also in a varied repertoire from the Renaissance to contemporary composers. He has led The Sixteen on tours throughout Europe, America, and the Far East, and on over 70 recordings.

When we last left Harry Christophers and his cracker jack a cappella chorus the Sixteen, they were making fabulous recordings for the wonderful Collins label. But that was back in the halcyon days of the CD boom, those far off times called the '90s, when everyone with a little capital and a lot of taste could start a record label. Back in the '90s, Christophers and the Sixteen made more than a dozen wonderful recordings for Collins, among them one of the most moving recordings of Henry Purcell's Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary ever made. But the digital boom went bust and so did Collins, taking with it all of Christophers and the Sixteen's discs.