Page 344 - FINAL_The Sixteen Coverage Book 40th Anniversary Year

11 March 2019

The Sixteen: City Recital Hall, March 9
★★★★½

Eighteen members of the vocal ensemble known as The Sixteen (go figure?)
presented a characteristic program under conductor Eamonn Dougan
juxtaposing the richly intricate, serenely balanced vocal tapestries of the
Tudor period with the highpoints of British vocal writing from the 20th and
21st centuries.

Framed by the simple chaste hymns of Thomas Tallis' Tunes for Archbishop
Parker's Psalter, the program included 16th century madrigals by Morley,
Gibbons and Byrd and polyphonic sacred music by Tallis, Byrd and John
Sheppard interspersed with two of Scottish composer James MacMillan's
austere Strathclyde Motets (themselves at times reminiscent of the open
harmonies of the 15th century), Britten's stylish Tudor evocations Gloriana
Dances (written for the coronation of the other Elizabeth) and exquisitely
shaded readings of Michael Tippett's Five Spirituals from his oratorio A Child
of Our Time.
Few mid-sized vocal ensembles can match them in balance, transparent
clarity (a particular joy in their encore Byrd's Ave Verum Corpus), subtlety and
variety of dynamic and vocal timbre (as, for example, in the rich
expressiveness and salted astringency of Tippett's harmonies) and simple
beauty of sound.
In a word, superb.

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