The Sixteen's Blog

Bridgewater Hall, Manchester

The Choral Pilgrimage pauses between Ardingly last weekend and Manchester next Tuesday with a reprise of our The Earth Resounds programme tonight in Christ Church Spitalfields in London.

Bridgewater Hall in Manchester, which opened in late 1996, is, of course, a considerable architectural contrast to the majority of our Pilgrimage venues, but, as Associate Artists, we always receive a warm welcome there, and the setting will both contrast and complement the acoustic world of Palestrina, Allegri and MacMillan.  Full details and online bookings are here. The concert is on Tuesday 18 June at 7.30pm and will be interpreted in British Sign Language by Paul Whittaker.

You will have seen our CD sales desks at our concerts: few have such a setting as that in Ardingly last weekend. If you were not able to be there, our currently charting CDs are available in all formats from our website: An Immortal Legacy, The Queen of Heaven, and music by Bartlomiej Pekiel.

Al fresco CD sales at Ardingly: lull before the storm

Eamonn Dougan with Klaudia Baranowska of Polskie Radio

Just back from Warsaw where our Associate Conductor Eamonn Dougan launched our new Pekiel CD to the Polish music press, at a reception hosted by one of our funding partners, the Adam Mickiewicz Institute.  Polish Radio is preparing 3 programmes about this recording and Emaonn recorded additional documentary material whilst we were there. It was also a chance to meet with some of the musicologists and librarians who are assisting with our Polish repertoire recordings over the coming years: indeed it was a pleasure to spend a whole afternoon in the University of Warsaw Music Library, acting as Eamonn’s research assistant! The final highlight of the visit came in the departure lounge before the return flight: Radek Sikorski, the Foreign Minister of Poland, tweeted news about the CD to his 125k+ followers!

A joy to listen to: RT@TheSixteen: Polish music by Bartłomiej Pękiel. Poland order: http://bit.ly/14HXEHK UK order: http://bit.ly/OlIqCd

Jonathan Foyle

BBC 2 is repeating the fascinating 2-part series, ‘Henry VIII: Patron or Plunderer’. King Henry VIII had a fascinating and enlightening relationship with art. He came to the throne as the Renaissance swept across Europe, yet England’s new king never lost sight of the medieval chivalry of his forefathers. In the first of a two-part documentary, architectural historian Jonathan Foyle looks at the palaces, tapestries, music and paintings created in Henry’s name and questions whether the art he commissioned compensates for the religious treasures he would come to destroy. Harry discusses Henry’s talent as a composer and members of The Sixteen perform exmples of Henry’s music (or music which is attributed to him). Available here on the BBC iPlayer (until next Saturday).

Sally Dunkley

Sixteen soprano Sally Dunkley took part in a fascinating edition of BBC Radio 3′s The Early Music Show last weekend, an artist profile of David Wulstan.  As the BBC described the programme: ‘Catherine Bott talks to David Wulstan, a pioneering figure in the understanding and interpretation of early music in general, and of music of the Tudor period in particular.

In the 1960s and 1970s David Wulstan created The Clerkes of Oxenford. With this group of singers he worked tirelessly to produce revelatory recordings of the music of Tallis, Sheppard, Gibbons, Tye, White, and others, which revolutionized the way it was interpreted, and the way we now hear it today.

The debt owed to David Wulstan by many of today’s performers and practitioners of early music is immense, and many important figures, such as Harry Christophers, began their careers studying or performing with him. One of those people joins in today’s conversation: Sally Dunkley, the singer and scholar who first encountered David Wulstan at a University of Oxford entrance interview, studied with him, and has continued to work with him and share his friendship until today.

David Wulstan is a fascinating, erudite and colourful contributor to the appreciation of early music. When the word musicologist is mentioned, he threatens to make use of his martial arts skills…..’

You can hear the programme on the BBC iPlayer until lunchtime on Saturday. It’s fascinating!

Arts and Business Awards 2013

Back to LSO St Luke’s last night, for the Arts and Business Awards.  We were delighted that our nominee Mark Loveday won the A&B Cultural Champion Award for the South of England. Mark has been a member of our Development Board since 2001, has introduced many individual donors and supporters to The Sixteen,  has given advice on the development strategy, donated regularly and devised new investment models for our recording programme. Mark was out of London yesterday, so the Award was accepted on his behalf by fellow Development Board member Roger Mayhew, who acknowledged Mark’s great contribution to The Sixteen in his acceptance remarks.  The Awards ceremony was hosted by Classic FM’s Margherita Taylor, who publicly credited our relationship with the station as the Voices of Classic FM.

Bach tonight at Kings Place. There are very few remaining tickets:  full details are here.