Page 290 - FINAL_The Sixteen Coverage Book 40th Anniversary Year

17 December 2019

The Sixteen at Christmas: A Ceremony of Carols
Labels: Cadogan Hall, concert review, The Sixteen

Harry Christophers, The Sixteen
Britten A Ceremony of Carols, William Walton, Elizabeth Poston, Gustav Holst, Matthew
Martin, Jan Sandstrom, James Burton, Cecilia McDowall, Medieval carols; The Sixteen,
Harry Christophers; Cadogan Hall
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 5 November 2019 Star rating: 5.0 (★★★★★)
Britten's glorious carol sequence complemented by ancient and modern
settings of related Medieval texts

A remarkable number of early English carols survive, giving us a window onto a form
which underwent significant changes in the 19th century. And these texts have provided
an endless source of inspiration to 20th century and contemporary composers as the
contemporary carol has developed a lively new life. In fact, new carols were very much
the thing in the first half of the 20th century, Peter Warlock's Bethlehem Down (from
1927) was published by the Daily Telegraph, and William Walton's Make we joy now in
this fest (from 1931) by the Daily Despatch.

Benjamin Britten's A Ceremony of Carols (from 1942) had no such direct inception, it
was inspired by a book of medieval carol texts which he bought in Nova Scotia on the
journey back to wartime Britain from voluntary exile in America that he and Peter Pears
made in 1942, uncertain of their reception on arriving. The work is a 20th century
masterpiece, but what to programme with it?

For The Sixteen at Christmas: A Ceremony of Carols at Cadogan Hall on Monday 16

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