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Large ecclesiastical buildings, with their hard surfaces and long high naves, are challenging for complex music like Bach’s.

The Sixteen’s work is spoilt by a shortage of violins and some uneven solo contributions. Such imperfections only serve to highlight the excellence of the very best. 

The latest instalment of Kings Place's “Sound Unwrapped” series delivers wonderful musicianship in both jazz and early music, but not the promised “continuous fusion of styles”.

Under the baton of Harry Christophers and direction of Penny Woolcock, Streetwise Opera, The Sixteen, Sixteen Orchestra, backed by a number of Manchester-based organisations came together to bring a well-crafted Easter dramatisation of one of Johann Sebastian Bach’s seminal oratorios. 

Engaging, passionate and life-afirming: Harry Christophers' group The Sixteen give a memorable rendition of Monteverdi's Vespers 1610

The Sixteen's tour of Monteverdi's Vespers nears completion with an absorbing rendition at Guildford Cathedral. 

At one point in the classic 1950 film All About Eve, the inimitable theatre critic Addison DeWitt speaks reverently of his art as critic: “I have lived in the theatre as a Trappist monk lives in his faith. I have no other world; no other life – and once in a great while, I experience that moment of revelation for which all true believers wait and pray.

Most known for small scale, intimate performances of Handel's Messiah, Harry Christophers led his Choir and Orchestra of the Sixteen - with a few hundred others - at the Festival Hall last night as part of the 60th anniversary celebrations for the Festival of Britain.

La fama de Handel, vinculada habitualmente con el Mesías, su hito más sobresaliente, no debe conducir a un olvido del resto de oratorios que nutren su catálogo, en el que, según pudimos atestiguar anoche, Israel en Egipto también merece un lugar privilegiado.