A Heavenly Vespers: The Sixteen soar in Monteverdi's masterpiece

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. 

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.