Macmian The Sixteen

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 always.

Famed for its interpretations of some of Handels most loved works, The Sixteen marks the start of its 40th anniversary season by releasing its first new Handel recording in five years. Handels pastoral opera is a tale of love, tragedy and liberation. The libretto by John Gay, based on Ovids Metamorphoses (book XIII), tells of the eternal love between the mortal shepherd Acis and goddess Galatea and how it is doomed by the jealous cyclops Polyphemus. Handels music beautifully demonstrates the pain and love in such beautiful, dramatic choruses as Wretched lovers! and the grief felt by Galatea in Must I my Acis still bemoan. Staying true to the premiere in 1718, just five singers and nine instrumentalists feature on this intimate recording.

The Sixteen adds to its stunning Handel collection with a new recording of Dixit Dominus set alongside a little know treasure - Agostino Steffani’s Stabat Mater. Full of virtuosity, vibrant colour and dynamic energy, Handel’s Dixit Dominus captures absolutely the Italian style of the period. Handel’s control of forces is masterly and the range of texture and style is breathtaking. Written during the composer’s time in Italy in the early eighteenth century it is amongst his first autographed works and also one of his finest.

A liturgically and historically well thought-out coupling of Byrd's works, which are probably among the best that English choral music of the early century has to offer. The Sixteen interpret with British distinction in expression, but great beauty of overall sound.

First and foremost, Domenico Scarlatti is regarded as the greatest composer of binary harpsichord sonatas of all time, and that is as it should be: he wrote more than 600 of them and many are constantly recorded and played. However, early in his Italian career, Scarlatti developed a proven track record as a composer of sacred music, some of it under the watchful eye of his father, Alessandro Scarlatti, believed by many at the time as the top composer of the age. The fact most readily observed in regard to Domenico's sacred music is that his Stabat mater, composed in 1717 or 1718, was the work within that genre replaced in Rome by Giovanni Pergolesi's Stabat mater around 1735. The Scarlatti work was conceived in a different style to different strictures; while it has become the most recorded of Scarlatti's sacred works, it definitely suffers when paired with the Pergolesi owing to its immediacy and familiarity. On Coro's Iste Confessor, the Sixteen led by Harry Christophers widely opt for Scarlatti's own, other sacred music as filler to the "Stabat mater with results fairer to the composer and quite favorable to listeners.

Harry Christophers's account, with The Sixteen Choir and Orchestra it was recorded live in the rich acoustic of St John's Smith Square, London, in March 1989, with a chorus of eighteen and a period instrument band of twenty-one. Christophers leads a solid, warm, and effective account of the 1724 version. Ian Partridge is a distinctive and compassionate Evangelist; the unusual timbre of his elegant, mature voice often calls to mind that of Aksel Schiøtz. Once again, the singing and the playing are of a particularly high quality. Having opted for the original versions of 'Betrachte meine Seel' and 'Erwäge', Christophers makes extensive use of the lute as a continuo instrument in other portions of the Passion.

Long awaited album from the master of cubist fusion on which Holdsworth plays synthaxe as well as guitar. 8 tracks produced by Holdsworth, includes special guests Walt Fowler & Chad Wackerman. The Sixteen Men of Tain is the tenth studio album by guitarist Allan Holdsworth, released in March 2000 through Gnarly Geezer Records (United States), Polydor Records (Japan) and JMS–Cream Records (Europe); a remastered edition was reissued in 2003 through Globe Music Media Arts. The album's title is a reference to the Glenmorangie distillery in Scotland. This was the last recording to be made at Holdsworth's personal recording studio The Brewery.

Associate Conductor of The Sixteen, Eamonn Dougan, makes his full conducting debut on CORO in the first of an exciting new series exploring some of Poland’s greatest choral composers. Bartłomiej Pękiel was one of the most eminent Polish composers of choral music of the 17th century. He served at the court in Warsaw from around 1633 and was assistant to Marco Scacchi at the Chapel Royal in Warsaw before becoming Kapellmeister himself from 1645-1655 - the first non-Italian to hold the post. He then moved to Wawel Cathedral in Krakow where he wrote for the Rorantist vocal ensemble.