Handel in February; Guerrero in March; a CD of popular sacred anthems due out in May from Universal Classics - The Sixteen must be one of the busiest choirs around. However, the quantity is in no way diminishing the quality of their work. Their new recording of Guerrero’s Missa de la batalla escoutez is richly eloquent. The choir’s expert performance on their forthcoming anthems disc (entitled A New Heaven, sporting favourites such as Parry’s I was glad and Jerusalem, Stanford’s Beati Quorum Via and Wood’s O Thou the Central Orb) will delight an even wider market. But for sheer joie de vivre and unalloyed pleasure-giving, this Handel disc comes out on top. The fillers may be unashamedly populist – the Daily Telegraph rather snootily considered that they ‘dilute rather than strengthen the disc’s attraction’ – but Handel himself frequently recycled movements to suit particular circumstances. Indeed, the lively opening track (very lively in Christophers’ hands) known as the Arrival of the Queen of Sheba started life as a ‘Sinfony’, originally intended for a different oratorio but ending up, entirely appropriately, in Solomon. The French-style overture to Jephtha is equally enjoyable, with its noble introduction prefacing a swift-moving second section. Christophers includes the Organ Concerto in F Major in its original version, where it formed part of Handel’s oratorio Athalia and ended with an Alleluia chorus, replete with horns. Alastair Ross gives a sparkling performance, on a vibrant blue Manders chamber organ known as ‘The Aquarium’. Of the Coronation Anthems themselves, Christophers’ interpretations are persuasive and refreshing. My heart is inditing is imbued with an uncommon grace and beauty. The orchestral introduction to Zadok is quietly understated, so that the explosive entry of the chorus is almost shocking in its intensity; thereafter, the piece is jubilant in the extreme. In The King shall rejoice crisply-dotted rhythms are contrasted with thoughtfully-phrased legato lines; and it’s almost a relief not to have trumpets in the more comtemplative Let thy hand be strengthened. (At that point in the 1727 coronation service the trumpeters were needed elsewhere to play fanfares.) Worthy is the Lamb and the Amen Chorus from Messiah round off the disc in sprightly but sympathetic fashion. For some mid-winter cheer, this is the answer!

Reviewed by Anne McAlister