• Two international ensembles established in 1979, each playing vital roles in expanding repertoire, have issued 40th anniversary collections. Les Arts Florissants, founded by the American-born French conductor and harpsichordist William Christie, takes its name from Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s 1685 opera of that name. A fluid ensemble of singers, instrumentalists and dancers, Les Arts Flo embraces mainstream Bach and Mozart but is particularly known for its exploration of lesser known baroque composers: Lully, Rameau, Gluck, Charpentier and others. Their three-disc set (Harmonia Mundi), directed by Christie and British tenor/conductor Paul Agnew, is grouped as Music and Theatre, Sacred (the plum of the three, especially worth it for Luigi Rossi’s anguished Un Peccator pentito) and Profane.
• The Sixteen, the much loved British group founded by conductor Harry Christophers and at first best known for early English and European Renaissance polyphony, has a wider embrace. Their double-album compilation (Coro) confirms that variety, fresh and vital in every track, from Palestrina and Monteverdi to Poulenc, Stravinsky, Morten Lauridsen and Howard Skempton. It’s the ideal playlist for anyone wanting to sample the possibilities of choral music, wonderfully sung (and in some cases played, with the Orchestra of the Sixteen).
• From experience to youth: the a cappella quintet Apollo5 freely combines classical with arrangements of jazz, folk and pop. O Radiant Dawn (VCM) – its title comes from the opening track by James MacMillan (now a choral classic, also featured in the Sixteen’s set) – mixes Pérotin with Byrd, Monteverdi, Schumann and arrangements of the Skye Boat Song and Scarborough Fair. Perfect for millennials, or anyone responsive to lithe, expertly blended vocal music.
• On Radio 3 all this week, Petroc Trelawny’s Breakfast programme will come from five locations along the River Severn – from mid-Wales to Shropshire and Gloucestershire and into the Bristol Channel – complete with natural intrusions. Sounds promising.
