A Meditation The Sixteen & Harry Christophers

• Ben Dunwell, St John Henry Newman (1801 - 1890), Will Todd (b. 1970): I Shall be an Angel of Peace:
• 1 Dunwell, Newman, Todd: I Shall be an Angel of Peace 10:01
• St John Henry Newman, William Henry Harris (1883 - 1973): Lead, Kindly Light:
• 2 Newman, Harris: Lead, Kindly Light 02:38
• Robert Willis (b. 1947), St John Henry Newman, Anna Semple: A Meditation:
• 3 Willis, Newman, Semple: A Meditation 05:34
• St John Henry Newman, Richard Runciman Terry (1865 - 1938): Praise to the Holiest in the Height:
• 4 Newman, Terry: Praise to the Holiest in the Height 03:52
• Edward Elgar (1857 - 1934): Great is the Lord, Op. 67:
• 5 Elgar: Great is the Lord, Op. 67 10:19
• Robert Willis: ...a link in a chain…:
• 6 Willis: ...a link in a chain... 05:52
• St John Henry Newman, Edward Elgar (1857 - 1934): They are at Rest (Elegy):
• 7 Newman, Elgar: They are at Rest (Elegy) 03:52
• St John Henry Newman, William Boyce (1711 - 1779): Firmly I Believe and Truly:
• 8 Newman, Boyce: Firmly I Believe and Truly 02:33
• Edward Elgar: Give Unto the Lord, Op. 74:
• 9 Elgar: Give Unto the Lord, Op. 74 08:29
• Robert Willis: Nothing in Vain:
• 10 Willis: Nothing in Vain 08:18
• James MacMillan (b. 1959): Nothing in Vain:
• 11 MacMillan: Nothing in Vain 11:10
• Bob Chilcott (b. 1955): O Lord, Thou Hast Searched me, and Known me (Bonus Track):
• 12 Chilcott: O Lord, Thou Hast Searched me, and Known me (Bonus Track) 05:44
• Total Runtime 01:18:22

Info for A Meditation

Wieder einmal haben sich The Sixteen und die Genesis Foundation zusammengetan, um dem Publikum in aller Welt Erstaufnahmen einer faszinierenden Auswahl neuer Auftragswerke für Chöre zu präsentieren.

Die fünf neuen Chorwerke auf diesem Album - von James MacMillan, Will Todd, Anna Semple, Eoghan Desmond und Lisa Robertson - sind alle aus einer Meditation des Heiligen John Henry Newman entstanden. Newmans Schriften, die im Oktober 2019 heiliggesprochen werden, stellen ein reiches und zum Nachdenken anregendes Vermächtnis dar und sind neben den hier vorgestellten neuen Werken auch in drei bekannten Hymnen und Sir Edward Elgars exquisiter Elegie They are at rest verewigt. Ebenfalls enthalten sind zwei von Elgars Psalmvertonungen - Great is the Lord und Give unto the Lord. Dies sind monumentale Werke für Chor und Orgel, voller Größe und Dramatik, aber auch von Natur aus einfach. Das Album endet mit einem Bonustrack von Bob Chilcott - ebenfalls ein Auftragswerk der Genesis Foundation - basierend auf Psalm 139.

The Sixteen
Harry Christophers, Leitung

Jeremy Budd
Born in Hertfordshire, Jeremy started out as a chorister at St Paul’s Cathedral in London before going on to study at the Royal Academy of Music. Since finishing his studies he has been much in demand on the concert platform predominantly for his Baroque repertoire. Jeremy has worked with many of the foremost conductors in this field including Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Harry Christophers, Paul McCreesh, John Butt, Bernard Labadie and Jeffrey Skidmore.

Notable performances have included a tour of Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 with Harry Christophers and The Sixteen, an abridged performance of Bach’s St Matthew Passion in collaboration with Streetwise Opera and The Sixteen, the Evangelist in Bach’s St Matthew Passion at Symphony Hall with Jeffrey Skidmore and Ex Cathedra, Monteverdi’s Madrigals with Jonathan Cohen and Arcangelo in Saffron Hall, Purcell’s King Arthur with Paul McCreesh and also a programme of Purcell Odes in the Wigmore Hall. Recently Jeremy has also performed Gibbons’ Verse Anthems with Fretwork and toured Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with Masaaki Suzuki and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.

Grace Davidson
is an English soprano who specialises in the performance and recording of Baroque music. She won the Early Music Prize while studying singing at the Royal Academy of Music. Since then, she has worked with leading Baroque ensembles of our day, singing under the batons of Sir John Eliot Gardner, Paul McCreesh, Philippe Herreweghe and Harry Christophers. Her discography includes a decade of CDs with The Sixteen, many of which feature her as soloist and include Handel’s Jephtha (as Angel) and Dixit Dominus, Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 and ‘Pianto della Madonna’ from the Selva morale e spirituale and Bach’s Lutheran Masses. She has also recorded Fauré’s Requiem with the London Symphony Orchestra on the LSO Label and her Pie Jesu was described as ‘matchless’ by Richard Morrison on BBC Radio 3’s Building a Library.

Mark Dobell
Originally from Tunbridge Wells in Kent, Mark Dobell was a choral scholar of Clare College, Cambridge, where he read Classics. He later studied as a postgraduate at the Royal Academy of Music, and was awarded the Clifton Prize for the best final recital.

Mark has worked as a soloist all over the world with renowned conductors including Harry Christophers, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Sir Roger Norrington and Sir James MacMillan. His extensive concert and oratorio repertoire includes many of the major works of Handel, Bach and Mozart, as well as pieces by composers as varied as Monteverdi, Haydn, Mendelssohn, Britten, Jonathan Dove and Karl Jenkins.

Simon Berridge
was born in Hertfordshire and went on to pursue his music studies at Trinity College, Cambridge. He subsequently studied voice as a postgraduate at the Royal College of Music.

Simon has worked with many of the leading British ensembles including The Sixteen. He has also worked with several European ensembles including Collegium Vocale of Gent and Les Arts Florissants.

His solo performances have included Messiah with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 at the BBC Proms and Edinburgh Festival, Bach’s Magnificat in the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Handel’s Israel in Egypt in the Covent Garden Festival with The Sixteen, Bach’s St Matthew Passion in the London Handel Festival and the St John Passion (Evangelist and arias) performed live on Spanish Radio in the National Auditorium.

Simon’s operatic roles have included ‘Sandy’ in The Lighthouse by Peter Maxwell Davies, ‘The Madwoman’ in Curlew River by Benjamin Britten, and the ‘Auctioneer’ in The Rake’s Progress.

Harry Christophers
stands among today’s great champions of choral music. In partnership with The Sixteen, the ensemble he founded almost 40 years ago, he has set benchmark standards for the performance of everything from late medieval polyphony to important new works by contemporary composers. His international influence is supported by more than 150 recordings and has been enhanced by his work as Artistic Director of Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society and as guest conductor worldwide.

The Sixteen’s soundworld, rich in tonal variety and expressive nuance, reflects Christophers’ determination to create a vibrant choral instrument from the blend of adult professional singers. Under his leadership The Sixteen has established its annual Choral Pilgrimage to cathedrals, churches and other UK venues, created the Sacred Music series for BBC television, and developed an acclaimed period-instrument orchestra. Highlights of their recent work include an Artist Residency at Wigmore Hall, a large-scale tour of Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610, and the world premiere of Sir James MacMillan’s Stabat mater; their future projects, meanwhile, comprise a new series devoted to Purcell and an ongoing survey of Handel’s dramatic oratorios.

Harry has served as Artistic Director of the Handel and Haydn Society since 2008. He was also appointed as Principal Guest Conductor of the City of Granada Orchestra in 2008 and has worked as guest conductor with, among others, the London Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Philharmonic, the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra and the Deutsches Kammerphilharmonie. Christophers’ extensive commitment to opera has embraced productions for English National Opera and Lisbon Opera and work with the Granada, Buxton and Grange Park festivals. He was appointed a CBE in the Queen’s 2012 Birthday Honours for his services to music. He is an Honorary Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, as well as the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, and has Honorary Doctorates in Music from the Universities of Leicester, Canterbury Christ Church and Northumbria.

This album contains no booklet.