Page 286 - FINAL_The Sixteen Coverage Book 40th Anniversary Year

Britten started writing the piece in 1942, when he and Peter Pears were sailing back to
England after three years in America, and he finished it a few months after his return.
Nearly seventy years later, it remains one of the most popular seasonal works, and it is
one that The Sixteen has not only performed many times but also recorded for its award-
winning record label CORO.

“We wanted to revisit A Ceremony of Carols because it’s one of our favourite Christmas
programmes, and we do it every five or six years,” says The Sixteen’s founder and
conductor Harry Christophers.

“It’s interesting that when Britten wrote it he was not in a good frame of mind. They
[Britten and Pears] had left England because they were pacifists and they didn’t know
what reception they were going to get. Britten was terribly depressed, and he often wrote
his happiest music when at his most depressed.

“To make it slightly different to other interpretations we’ve gone back as close as we
know to what the old English sounded like, and we had help from a specialist with that.
It’s something that has always interested me. It makes the medieval texts come alive.”

The Britten piece forms the framework for the concert, which also features traditional
medieval carols performed alongside seasonal works by 20 and 21 century composers
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such as Walton, Warlock, Holst, Matthew Martin, James Burton and Cecilia McDowall.

“I’ve tried to balance it all out,” Harry says. “In typical The Sixteen fashion, one or two
are quite familiar pieces, but there are also some pieces that haven’t been heard much
in recent years.

“It’s lovely to include another piece by Cecilia McDowell. She’s written several carols,
and she writes excellently. She often looks back to beautiful medieval texts but writes in
a very jaunty 6/8, always very rhythmic and interesting.”

For Harry, an alumnus of Magdalen College, returning to Oxford – especially to the SJE
– is always a particular joy.

“The SJE has a lovely acoustic, and it’s more practical than most of the colleges. I’m so
pleased it’s all been renovated and people of Oxford have got to know that it exists.

“When I was at university all those years ago, I used to walk up the Iffley Road quite a lot
and had no idea this place was there! It’s a really lovely church. It’s so atmospheric, and
always a joy to perform in.”

This has been a special year for The Sixteen – it is 40 years since Harry founded the
group that almost instantly took the choral world by storm. And, like so many good
things, it came about quite by chance.

“It was all a bit cavalier,” chuckles Harry. “I formed the group right after I left Oxford, and
it was just a group of friends. I was at Westminster as a professional singer when I was

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