Bach’s four Lutheran Masses feature almost no Lutheran material at all. Sometimes called "Missa brevis", musically they are almost entirely made up of movements borrowed from Bach’s Cantatas. While often overshadowed by the more famous Mass in B minor, the beauty of these short Masses is that they represent Bach’s own choice of his finest Cantata movements.Despite their exquisite beauty, featuring splendid choruses and deeply moving arias, there are relatively few recordings of the Masses. This collection combines The Sixteen’s recordings into one collection. Just eight singers join The Sixteen’s orchestra to perform the Masses, allowing the beauty of the virtuosic vocal lines to be heard with absolute clarity.

The Handel and Haydn Society celebrates Haydn with a dazzling pairing of two of the composer’s masterpieces. In one of his final performances as Artistic Director of the Society, Harry Christophers leads the ensemble and a stellar cast of soloists in Haydn’s monumental Theresienmesse (Mass in B-flat major, Hob.XXII:12) and his Symphony No. 103 in E-flat major, Hob. I:103, "Drumroll" - one of Haydn’s twelve "London" symphonies composed between 1791 and 1795 when London was the indisputable musical capital of Europe.

Once again The Sixteen and the Genesis Foundation have teamed up to bring premiere recordings of a fascinating selection of new choral commissions to audiences worldwide.

To welcome the spring, British ensemble I Fagiolini puts aside its beloved Monteverdi to uncover its own national heritage: the best of John Wilbye's classic Golden Age madrigals. Whilst his oeuvre may have been small (just 75 works that we know of and most just a couple of minutes long), time and again, in these exquisite cameos, Wilbye delivers what might be reckoned the ultimate madrigal experience.The plangent dissonance of Draw on, sweet night and Weep, weep, mine eyes perfectly evoke English melancholy, while Sweet honey-sucking bees and Adieu, sweet Amaryllis are such sheer pleasure to sing that many listeners will scrabble to unearth old scores. This album is, in a nutshell, 75 minutes of madrigalian bliss! Rediscover or enjoy anew this central part of English choral culture, strangely out of fashion for so long, sung by a group that has matured into the repertoire like a good wine.

Avec "An Old Belief", les chanteurs de The Sixteen - ensemble vocal toujours parmi l’un des plus plébiscités au monde - nous montrent durant une heure et quart qu'ils peuvent couvrir cinq siècles de musique avec grâce et naturel. Fort de plus de quarante ans d’existence, le choeur fondé par Harry Christophers qui officie toujours aux commandes impressionne par la qualité constante de ses interprétations, quel que soit le répertoire concerné.