The Sixteen's Blog

Exeter Cathedral

The West Country leg of our tour starts on Wednesday in Exeter Cathedral.  It is a couple of years since we were last there. Here is a brief history of one of our favourite venues.

After that, we go to Truro on Thursday, Taunton on Friday and Llandaff Cathedral on Saturday.  Details of how to obtain the few remaining tickets (Taunton is already sold out) are here.

We’ll be asking some of the singers to write about life on the road (or train-track, in many instances) as the week progresses.

Winchester Cathedral

The Sixteen’s 2012 Choral Pilgrimage starts this evening in Winchester Cathedral, in a programme entitled The Earth Resounds.

Harry has written: ‘I have decided to explore the quite amazing sacred music emanating from Flanders in the 15th and 16th centuries.  This extraordinary music spans 100 years of innovation and brilliance.  Josquin Desprez, Antoine Brumel and Orlande de 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 I believe will astound you’.

Here are Julie Cooper and Harry talking about the start of the tour during rehearsals yesterday.

Tonight at 7pm London-time (GMT+1), you can join Harry Christophers via Facebook for the first Sixteen Social: a chance to ask him questions about The Sixteen, our history and our future plans.

All is explained here.

This is the week the 2012 Choral Pilgrimage starts: The Earth Resounds, with music by Josquin, Brumel and Lassus.

We are in Winchester Cathedral on Friday evening and St Albans Cathedral on Saturday: there are some tickets still available.  Contact the National Centre for Early Music for details.

It is not the first time (and, we hope, not the last) that The Sixteen will be chosen by a guest on Radio 4′s Desert Island Discs, but yesterday’s programme was a particularly eclectic selection of eight tracks by jazz pianist and singer Jamie Cullum.  He played three songs himself (unusually, the programme was recorded with a live audience in Bristol), closing with Randy Newman’s I think it is going to rain today.  His sole classical choice was our recording of John Tavener’s The Lamb.  You can see the full selection of works and listen again on iPlayer here and you can buy our John Tavener CD Ikon of Light from our shop.

Belgian Radio’s classical channel, RTBF MUSIQ3, is broadcasting a whole sequence of programmes over the weekend about the top venues in London and the great ensembles based in the UK capital.  You can see the full schedule here. The weekend includes a programme about The Sixteen and Victoria on Sunday at 13.00 (with the clock change this weekend, I can’t exactly work out what time that will be in the UK!).  You can listen live here.