BACKSTAGE WITH… Conductor Harry Christophers
The Sixteen is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, and as part of it you’re performing Monteverdi’s Vespers across the UK. What made you choose this work?
We recorded it a few years ago and it’s a real showcase for the group. It’s a great work to perform in these fantastic buildings. The ensemble’s aim for 2019 is for us to have performed in every cathedral in Simon Jenkins’s England’s Cathedrals book, so we’re ticking quite a few off in this tour! It’s wonderful to go outside the major cities and visit lesser-trodden areas, because they can often be quite starved of major musical ensembles.
What else have you got planned for the anniversary year?
We’re doing over 30 choral pilgrimage concerts, with a programme that goes back to our roots when we first began with 16th-century English polyphony. We’re also putting on a brand new production of Handel’s Belshazzar at Grange Festival. Plus, we’ve got a lot of international touring planned, performing a few premieres of works by James Macmillan.
How has the ensemble developed in the last 40 years?
We’re a bit like athletes who are constantly trying to break their own records. The level of attention to detail and the ability to communicate is getting greater and greater. Despite recording being a real financial burden, we’ve maintained a good profile, and now we have to sustain that into the future. Every five years or so you need to look at what you’re doing and reinvent certain elements.