The Sixteen's Blog

The violins and continuo team

Emily has just sent me these photos of the rehearsal for tonight’s concert in St James’ Church in Chipping Campden, where we are performing more of Monteverdi’s Selva Morale e Spirituale in the music festival there.  Full details of the programme are here.

The concert rounds off another busy week, which included our Choral Pilgrimage visit to Greenwich, a reception to mark the support of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Representative Office of the Government of Flanders in London, and the RPS Awards.

The broadcast on BBC Radio 3 of the latter – featuring Kirsty, Katy, David, Sam and Greg – was earlier this afternoon, and can be heard for the next seven days on the iPlayer. 

Claudio Monteverdi

Having attended our concert of Monteverdi in Temple Church inLondon last night (you can hear the BBC Radio 3 broadcast here), and reflecting on the fact that some 75% of our concerts are given in cathedrals, abbeys or churches, I was intrigued to see an article on Renaissance Acoustics on the Gates Cambridge Scholarships website.  Braxton Boren and Prof. Malcom Longair have been investigating the question: ‘What would the works of great Renaissance composers like Monteverdi, Willaert and Gabrieli have sounded like when they were heard for the first time?’ You can see their conclusions and coverage in the scientific press here. And you can listen to some of their results on  this Web site by scrolling to the bottom of the page. The top button plays a recording of polyphonic music as it would sound in an echoless chamber; the middle recording is of polyphonic music as it would sound in the empty Basilica of San Marco; and the bottom one is of polyphonic music in the basilica during a festival, as predicted by Boren and Longair’s computer model.

Intriguing stuff.  Harry in particular obviously spends alot of time considering the effect of acoustics on our concerts and recordings: Ely Cathedral, for example, seems to have nodes whereby the sound is perfect only for every tenth row or so, whereas Peterborough Cathedral has a crystal-clear acoustic throughout the nave. And often, an acoustic which seems very dry for the singers, is actually warm and mellow for the audience.

Rehearsing in Temple Church

We continue our exploration of Monteverdi’s Selva morale e spirituale in a concert tonight in the Temple Church here in London. It is being broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 at 7.30pm.  Here’s the running order:

Monteverdi: Kyrie and Gloria from Messa a 4; Credidi, propter quod locutus sum; Pianto della Madonna; Credo from Messa a 4; Beatus vir (Secondo).

c. 8.15pm Interval: instrumental music by some of Monteverdi’s Italian forebears and contemporaries including Frescobaldi and a chance to hear music by Gian Francesco Malipiero, the composer and musicologist who put Monteverdi’s music back onto the musical map in the early part of the twentieth century.

c. 8.35pm: Monteverdi: Memento Domine David; Magnificat (Secondo); Laudate Dominum; Sanctus and Agnus Dei from Messa a 4, Crucifixus; Laudate pueri (Secondo).

Temple Church of course was badly damaged by incendiary bombs on 10 May 1941. One of the most notable features of today’s church is the east window.  This was a gift from the Glaziers’ Company in 1954 to replace that destroyed in the war. It was designed by Carl Edwards and illustrates Jesus’ connection with the Temple at Jerusalem.  In one panel we see him talking with the learned teachers there, in another driving out the money-changers (rather apposite at the moment!).  The window also depicts some of the personalities associated with Temple Church over the centuries, including Henry II, Henry III and several of the medieval Masters of the Temple.

CD Review

There was a fascinating in-depth analysis of all the available recordings of Monteverdi’s Selva morale e spirituale by David Vickers during Saturday morning’s CD Review on BBC Radio 3.  You can hear it on iPlayer until the end of the week, if you missed it.  It is at 0:32:17.  We didn’t expect to be the recommended version (and I won’t spoil the programme by revealing which he does choose), although he plays a couple of tracks from our recording.  We have only released Volume One so far, and he was reviewing complete versions: our Volumes Two and Three are not out until next year.  But Andrew MacGregor’s comments at the end of the package were encouraging: ‘David tells me that if The Sixteen caries on recording the rest on CORO then it sounds on the strength of Volume One that it is going to be a pretty competitive set.’

Elin Manahan Thomas, Grace Davidson and Simon Berridge

We have just finished sessions in St Silas Church in Kentish Town for our next CD of Monteverdi.  Volume 1 of Selva morale e spirituale (our CD of the week) was released recently, with two more volumes to follow.

Montverdi revolutionised the music of the theatre and the church by his dramatic and imaginative use of voices and instruments and by his daring harmonies and rhythms. Next to his Vespers of 1610, the Selva morale e spirituale of 1641 is his most significant and virtuosic collection of sacred music.

A team of eight singers were joined by our ace string and continuo players.  It’s too early to announce the release date, but we have other releases before then to highlight anyway!

Congratulations to one of our Development Board members Chris Blackhurst, who has just won the Business Journalist of the Year Award from the London Press Club.  Chris is City Editor of the London Evening Standard, but always manages to find space also to cover – trenchantly – the interface between business, the wealthy and the arts (and other third sector activity).

We are off to Croydon tonight for the next Choral Pilgrimage Victoria concert, supported by the Office for Cultural and Scientific Affairs, Embassy of Spain, followed tomorrow by the Massive Messiah at the Royal Festival Hall. A busy week.

If you can’t be on the South Bank tomorrow evening, try and get to the last performance of James MacMillan’s Clemency at the Royal Opera House.  I saw it last night: brilliant, with writing for voices which reaffirms why he is one of The Sixteen’s favourite contemporary composers.

Recording session in St. Silas Church