Page 41 - FINAL_The Sixteen Coverage Book 40th Anniversary Year

“For our 40th anniversary, I’m going back to grass roots,” Christophers says, “so I’ve
included one of the first pieces we performed, Robert Fayrfax’s Aeternae laudis lilium, an
extended motet commissioned by Elizabeth of York [Henry VII’s queen]. It’s very elaborate,
very long. The first letters of the first 21 lines spell out her name and title in Latin: Elisabeth
Regina Angliæ. We also return to The Eton Choirbook and Robert Wylkynson with a nine-
part antiphon to the Virgin Mary.”

As is their custom, the programme has already been released on the Sixteen’s label, Coro,
under the title An Enduring Voice, and includes pieces by their “signature” composer, John
Sheppard — who restored the musical glory of the Roman Catholic liturgy in Mary Tudor’s
reign. The Tudor polyphony is interspersed with pieces by Eric Whitacre, MacMillan and the
late John Tavener, all of whom one might call neomedievalist modernists.

“It’s a challenging mix, but I think it will work,” Christophers says. “We’re still very much a
group grounded in the Renaissance, so I suggested this text to James, which he based on a
fragment of Wylkynson’s setting of this beautiful Italian poem.”

Christophers has been steeped in church choral music since his time as a child chorister at
Canterbury Cathedral and later as a lay clerk (or adult chorister) at Westminster Abbey.
“The choir started in fledgling form after Oxford, around 1977, but two years later we
decided we needed a name for our first London concerts. Our longest-serving member, Sally
Dunkley, officially retired from the main group 18 months ago, but she still ‘deps’ for us.”
The Pilgrimage comprises concerts in towns and cities across the land, from Truro to
Edinburgh. It opened at the Kings Place concert hall, in London, but most of the venues are
churches, college chapels and cathedrals where the Sixteen have built up a following for
their annual visits.

“It’s humbling,” Christophers says, “because the reaction we get is, ‘Thank you so much for
coming.’” Indeed, their visits have become sellout dates for the churches’ communities.
During their recent tour of Monteverdi’s Vespers, local singers reinforced the professional
forces. Education through participation — it’s one of the Sixteen’s most powerful
contributions to the national music scene.

Christophers has a thriving career as a non-specialist conductor. He is music director of
Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society until 2021. “I’m closing my term with a performance of
Haydn’s Creation, which the society first performed less than 20 years after the premiere.”
And much of this summer will be spent preparing and performing Handel’s oratorio
Belshazzar.

“It’s the most perfect baroque ‘opera’, with terrific choral music, but it’s new to me. I did
Saul, Jephtha and Semele at Buxton, but I’ve never done Belshazzar. It’s the oratorio I think
most cries out for stage production, with its dramatically conflicting choruses of Persians,
Babylonians and Hebrews.”

Handel is good box office in the UK, but Christophers says they struggle to sell any of the
oratorios other than Messiah in Boston. “It’s difficult. I’ve done all of the ones I’ve recorded,
but audiences still don’t come.”

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