Harry Christophers introduces The Sixteen’s twenty fifth Choral Pilgrimage, Angel of Peace

Harry Christophers & The Sixteen in rehearsal – 2024 (Photograph: Johnny Millar)

Harry Christophers and The Sixteen embark on their twenty fifth Choral Pilgrimage, Angel of Peace, this month. Beginning in Croydon Minster on Monday 17 March 2025, this sees them touring 21 venues throughout England, Scotland and Eire together with Dublin and Belfast, performing a programme that features music by Hildegard of Bingen, John Taverner, Arvo Pärt, Will Todd and Anna Clyne. The tour takes its title from phrases by Cardinal Newman, set to music by Will Todd, ‘Let me be an angel of peace’.

Harry Christophers (Photograph: Johnny Millar)

The Pilgrimage stays very a lot a Sixteen factor, the ensemble’s personal concert events throughout the breadth of the nation, and once I chat to Harry Christophers about this yr’s tour he feedback that everybody within the group feels strongly it. In any case, in the event that they miss locations off then some elements of the nation lose out. However there isn’t any doubt that it’s getting economically more durable; there isn’t any downside with audiences, and so they preserve ticket costs low, however the different bills resembling motels and journey have been growing. And naturally, the venues are UK cathedrals and church buildings, buildings which might be usually struggling economically and having to place up their costs. 

He describes the Choral Pilgrimage as a burden the group has taken on, however it’s a good burden, and the Pilgrimage stays necessary to audiences throughout. The tour is launched in Croydon Minster, which is a chief instance of what the tour is about, a stunning venue but in an space of London that deserves extra arts protection. This yr they’re visiting Edinburgh, Dublin and Belfast, however some venues have been misplaced on account of sheer economics, however there’s hope to reintroduce them sooner or later. However Harry emphasises that no-one is in charge, merely prices have risen, it’s the state of the humanities usually. He feedback that while there was an inclination to guage arts organisations on how they handled the pandemic, however it’s the previous few years that the group has discovered troublesome. They’re, nevertheless, fortunate to have fantastic patrons although he then provides, with a smile, that like most arts organisations, they might do with extra.

This yr’s programme started with John Taverner’s two large-scale Antiphons, Gaude plurimum and O splendor gloriae. Again within the days of LPs, Harry and the group recorded the Taverner, although at the moment they adopted the style of performing the music up a minor third. Now they’re, as Harry describes it, grown up and plan to carry out them on the right pitch. Harry calls the 2 antiphons stonking items, every ten to fifteen minutes lengthy, so he wanted some very totally different music for distinction. Some years in the past, they did a programme that combined the music of Arvo Pärt with Renaissance music, which labored nicely so this yr they’re doing Arvo Pärt’s Tribute to Caesar, Da pacem Domine and Magnificat, recognising his ninetieth birthday.

The Genesis Basis commissioned Will Todd to put in writing a setting of a meditation by Cardinal Newman, I shall be an angel of peace. Harry feedback that some commissions get an outing and are then put to mattress, however Will Todd’s is a terrific piece, and he wished to provide it extra outings. It was Harry who advised to Will Todd that he use a solo violin alongside the choir, one thing that within the 2025 programme supplies extra sonic selection. To enhance Will Todd’s piece, they commissioned a brand new work from Anna Clyne for a similar forces.

Her Orbits was an actual collaboration between Harry and the composer, pondering lengthy concerning the piece and the textual content. Anna Clyne has set Rilke in translation, and her writing for the violin within the piece is incredible. In want of one thing to hyperlink these strands, Harry turned to Hildegard of Bingen. With settings of two sturdy writers in Cardinal Newman and Rilke, Hildegard exemplifies each poet and composer.

For Harry, a Choral Pilgrimage programme wants have selection, together with a theme that’s obscure sufficient to not constrict the programme. Which means that there might be some issues that members of the viewers adore and a few which can problem them (however in a great way), however Harry likes to suppose that individuals come to pay attention due to The Sixteen’s popularity. He sees the concert events as introducing all kinds of music to folks and persuading them to pay attention. As Harry sees it, Renaissance music is the group’s speciality, however the many fashionable composers they carry out are influenced by the Renaissance composers. And, in fact, for every Choral Pilgrimage there’s a specifically recorded disc, that means audiences have a approach of exploring additional, for this yr’s disc, Angel of Peace see The Sixteen’s web site.

Trying forward, the group is in Oslo on 30 March for the shut of the 2025 Oslo Worldwide Church Music Competition with a programme in Oslo Cathedral of music by Hildegard of Bingen, John Tavener, Palestrina, Arvo Pärt and James MacMillan. Celebrating Palestrina’s five hundredth anniversary there are performances at St James’s Spanish Place (as a part of the Wigmore Corridor‘s season). The primary two concert events are on 14 Might, 18 June with the themes In reward of Ladies, and The Breaking of Bread. Every live performance is on a selected theme, mixing lots, motets and music from Palestrina’s motet cycle Canticum Canticorum from 1584, which relies on texts from Tune of Songs within the Outdated Testomony; Palestrina’s largest assortment of sacred motets.

Palestrina wrote one thing over 100 lots and Harry has recorded a collection of discs with the group, however there’s nonetheless a wealth of nice music within the composer’s output. Choirs tended to do the identical music every time, however there’s a lot extra, and Harry mentions the Magnificats and an entire set of Workplaces for the Church’s yr.

Harry Christophers & The Sixteen (Photograph: Ami Creates)

Harry is presently engaged on the programme for the 2028 Choral Pilgrimage! Generally folks recommend that he repeat programmes from different years, saying such and such a yr was a terrific programme, however he desires to maintain the repertoire energetic. The one downside is that they want an even bigger library to retailer it, however he thinks that it’s marvellous that there’s a lot music.

A dialogue between John Studzinski (philanthropist and founding father of the Genesis Basis) and the late Robert Willis (poet, cleric and Dean of Canterbury Cathedral till 2022) led to a fee for Willis to put in writing a collection of poems about Angels as messengers, ministers, warriors and worshippers. Willis had beforehand tailored a textual content by Newman for James MacMillan in 2020 as Nothing in Useless ;recorded by The Sixteen on their disc A Meditation which incorporates Will Todd’s piece too. [see my review of the premiere of both the James MacMillan and Will Todd pieces]

For the Voice of Angels challenge, the Genesis Basis commissioned three younger composers to set Robert Willis’ poems. The composers are Lucy Walker, Millicent B James and Ninfea Crutwell-Reade, and their new items had been workshopped by Genesis Sixteen with James MacMillan in Dumfries final yr. The Sixteen might be giving the premieres of those three very totally different works, one thing Harry finds thrilling, at St James’s Piccadilly on 22 Might and at St John’s Church, Cumnock on 24 Might.

In June final yr, they introduced the 14th cohort of Genesis Sixteen, the group’s free younger artists’ programme for 18 to 23-year-olds. Genesis Sixteen lately took half in a session on the Royal Welsh School of Music and Drama in Cardiff (coinciding with music coaching in Cardiff being within the information for all of the fallacious causes). That they had a incredible weekend, and RWCMD has a really energetic vocal division, and the soloists had been of their ultimate yr at RWCMD, three being former members of Genesis Sixteen. The scheme has now seen over 300 singers move by means of the programme which is an actual bonus.

The Sixteen’s Studying and Participation programme has hyperlink ups with the London Youth Choirs, Leeds Roman Catholic Cathedral’s Youth Programme, Barnsley Youth Choir and extra lately, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Youth Choir and different youth choirs, and these feed into Genesis Sixteen to nice profit. Harry feels that for singers of their teenage years, there are quite a lot of optimistic issues occurring in choral music and that due to this, the way forward for choral music could be very optimistic, there’s quite a lot of curiosity from younger folks. All we have now to do is be sure that philanthropy and company help will get behind this.