The Sixteen at St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin on 10 September 2015

Currently one of the leading ensembles in British choral music, The Sixteen makes a return visit to Dublin after its successful Handel concert in 2013. Directed by its founder Harry Christophers, tonight The Sixteen consists of twenty singers and an instrumental ensemble of eighteen players (led by Irish violinist Sarah Sexton) performing one work, the brilliant Vespers of 1610 by Claudio Monteverdi. Expectations are high: the concert has been sold out for weeks, and unreserved seating means most of the audience are seated and ready a full half-hour beforehand.

The opening movements (‘Deus in adjutorium’ and ‘Dixit Dominus’) set the scene. Tenor Mark Dobell’s solo rings out across the cathedral, answered in turn by the full ensemble, the sound well-projected and focused. The shifting rhythms and rich sound-world of Monteverdi’s work are brought to life in beautiful and glittering detail. The choir sings as one, with flawless ensemble singing, and the superb solo singers that emerge from within its ranks only underline the depth and expertise of the group as a whole. The movements ‘Nigra Sum’, ‘Pulchra Es’ and ‘Duo Seraphim’ (setting more personal texts) are presented on an intimate scale like courtly songs, the solo singers accompanied by just one or two instruments. Alternating these with the more public statements of the choral psalm settings makes for dramatic contrasts in scale. The singing is always nimble and stylish, confidently tackling the virtuoso demands of the solo writing, while the balance of voices in the full choral sections is impressive.

Such excellence of vocal blend, discipline and intonation is rare, and a joy to hear, but frustratingly this seems almost an end in itself. For example, the motet ‘Duo Seraphim’, two tenors later joined by a solo bass, is music of rich spiritual yearning. The performance it receives here, however, while sonically excellent, is if anything just too cool and polished. The gem-like hymn ‘Ave Maris Stella’, so cleanly performed, similarly risks sounding just well-controlled, its poetry somehow failing to soar despite some exquisite instrumental playing. Could it be that this leading recording ensemble – for that is what it is – has become trapped by a need for consistency at all costs? Some of the most interesting singing comes in the motet ‘Audi Coelum’, with the two tenors Jeremy Budd and Bodell (his answering echo, off-stage in the Lady Chapel) given freer rein to bring out the music’s improvisatory style.

Nevertheless, the most expressive contributions are often given by members of the orchestra, such as the duets for cornets and then violins in the ‘Deposuit Potentes’, movingly played. As a performance, this is solidly reliable and deeply impressive, like a tour around a prize-winning National Trust property: beautiful, but with very little left to chance.

Programme:

Claudio Monteverdi: Vespers of 1610