Music
The Sixteen, Usher Hall, Edinburgh
Kate Molleson
[FOUR STARS]
It's hard to envisage a classier carol concert than The Sixteen - always a superlative bunch of singers - conducted by their founder Harry Christophers in a programme of Christmas music ranging from the 16th century to 2011. The Usher Hall might not be the cosiest venue but the choir filled the space like it was a cathedral, letting crystalline phrases drift without hurry and mustering enough oomph in lower voices to give the sound a proper grounding. It was all fairly well-behaved - the "gloria" in Angels from the Realms of Glory more graceful than exuberant - but the blend and polish of the voices was hard to fault.
The backbone of the programme was the Gregorian chant O Magnum Mysterium in settings by Louis de Victoria, Morten Lauridsen and Palestrina; of the latter we heard a motet and the Kyrie and Gloria of the sublime mass O Magnum Mysterium, plus the Nativity hymn A solis ortu cardine and the alternating lush polyphony and stern plainchant of Magnificat quarti toni. The Sixteen's Palestrina is shapely, full-bodied and pristine: it's them in their element.
The rest of the programme surveyed 20th century carols. I've never heard Gustav Holst's In the Bleak Midwinter sung with such subtle shading; every inflection of Christina Rossetti's poem was audible. Christophers took his time with Vaughan Williams's O Little Town, whose part-writing has never sounded so smooth. John Ireland's The Holy Boy and Charles Ives's A Christmas Carol made a beautiful pair, both of them tender and lilting. The singers let themselves really sink into the irresistible chords of Peter Warlock's Bethlehem Down, while the more synthetic charms of Lauridsen's O Magnum and Will Todd's My Lord Has Come sounded duly ecstatic.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article