Page 362 - FINAL_The Sixteen Coverage Book 40th Anniversary Year
P. 362
1 December 2019
Saint Cecilia @ Kings Place,
London
29 November 2019
by Barry Creasy
The Sixteen
The feast of St Cecilia, patron of musicians is in November, and The Sixteen opted to
celebrate it with a programme of 20 and 21 -century music, some of which was
th
st
written in honour of the saint. Tying in with Kings Place’s year-long Venus
Unwrapped series celebrating women in music, other pieces in the concert all
involved women in one way or another – as composers, translators of the text or as
dedicatees.
In terms of interpretation, The Sixteen were their usual acme of perfection,
delivering precision with warmth and richness of tone. Their director, Harry
Christophers, controlled dynamic and speed with a sure understanding of idiom,
such that the different sections of Britten’s Hymn to Saint Cecilia were performed to
bring out the best of Auden’s quirky text (‘I cannot go’ was light on its feet and the
opening bass line in ‘O ear whose creatures …’, had a tread without being over-hefty).
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