The Sixteen

The Sixteen is one of Britain’s most accomplished choral groups. This wide-ranging concert contrasts the glories of English and Scottish vocal music old and new, from the Renaissance splendour of Thomas Tallis to the powerful contemporary sounds of James MacMillan.

Tallis’s grand Spem in alium, which gives the concert its imposing ending, is a hugely moving piece for 40 individual voices whose melodies spin through space between the singers in a bewitching web of sound. The same composer’s vivid Tunes for Archbishop Parker’s Psalter served as the basis for Vaughan Williams’s famous Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis.

MacMillan’s intensely expressive Miserere and O bone Jesu are joined by glowing music from Renaissance monk and fellow Scot Robert Carver.

‘Nobody sings this repertoire better.’
The Guardian