Page 292 - FINAL_The Sixteen Coverage Book 40th Anniversary Year

Christophers choice of works, both ancient and modern, in fact reflected the themes of Britten's A
Ceremony of Carols so that we found ourselves exploring similar themes, associated texts, thus
giving a nice coherence to the evening.

Though Britten wrote A Ceremony of Carols in 1942, it was only in 1943 that the work achieved its
present final form. Surprisingly, Britten's initial conception and the first performances was all for
women's voices, but it was thanks to a series of strong performances by boys choirs in 1943 that his
preference for boys developed. There is also an SATB version which seems to date from 1943, but
adding male voices seems to add nothing to the work and perhaps takes something away; I am not
clear whether this version was something Britten created or, more likely, a requirement from his
publishers. Using adult voices, we lose the innocence of children's voices but gain richly expressive
lines.

The opening Procession was sung with a strong, flexible line by the sopranos, with the full ensemble
giving us a bright, up-front sound in Wolcom Yole!, uplifting indeed. There is no rose was quite dark in
colour, making the most of the rich tones of the adult voices, whilst That yonge child, with a solo from
Katy Hill, was haunting and perhaps slightly disturbing, again adult voices giving subtle undertones to
the piece. Balulalow had a lovely clear sound with a characterful solos from Kirsty Hopkins and
Charlotte Mobbs. As dew in Aprille was nicely upfront and full of striking textures, then a vivid account
of This little Babe, crisp and brilliant. There was something thoughtful and austere about Frances
Kelly's account of the harp interlude, and this austerity carried over into an intense In freezing winter
night with Spring Carol as an excellent foil with solos in both from Charlotte Mobbs and Alexandra
Kidgel. Deo gracias was strong and vivid, leading to a repeat of the opening material as the sopranos
of the choir left.

The capacity audience (this was the first of two performances of the programme at Cadogan Hall)
was most enthusiastic, so much so that they disregarded the request in the programme to only
applaud after groups of items and in fact applauded regularly throughout the evening. A touching, if
slightly annoying, testament to the choir's popularity and skill.

The Sixteen's Christmas programmes usually involve some unusually and rarely performed material,
but here Harry Christophers mined contemporary fascinating with Medieval carols (both text and
music) to provide an interesting complement to Britten's carol sequence, and to give us a concert full
of surprises and discoveries, with not a Victorian carol in sight. Though we did have Ding, Dong
merrily on high as the second encore!

Walton - Make we joy now in this fest
Medieval carols - Nowell, nowell: Out of your sleep; Sweet was the song
Traditional - Joys seven
Matthew Martin - Adam lay ybounden
Poston - Jesus Christ the apple tree
Warlock - Corpus Christi
Holst - This have I done for my true love
Medieval carols - There is no rose; Angelus ad virginem; Make we joy
Praetorius arr. Jan Sandström Lo, how a rose e’er blooming
James Burton - Balulalow
Cecilia McDowall - Of a Rose
Anonymous - The Salutation Carol
Britten - A Ceremony of Carols

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