Samson (Complete oratorio)

"Powerful choral singing from The Sixteen and alert playing by the period-instrument band make this the most pleasurable Samson yet recorded." - Sunday Times

Samson proved to be one of Handel's most popular oratorios during his lifetime, composed within weeks of Messiah. Thomas Randle sings a commanding title role ("Samson with attitude...: The Independent), with Lynda Russell's vocally seductive Dalila, and Catherine Wyn-Rogers' rich and expressive Micah. Samson opens with a pagan festival and closes with an elegy. Its finale is rightly established as one of the most famous arias of all time" "Let the bright Seraphim in burning row/ Their loud, uplifted angel-trumpets blow."

"I was struck by the unusual clarity of the texture in the choruses, attributable to Christophers' direction and insistence on firm tone and incisive articulation and to the work of the engineers. Altogether a welcome issue."
- Gramophone

The Sixteen is one of the jewels in the musical crown of Britain. Internationally recognised as one of the finest choirs of our time, it is admired for performances combining clarity and precision with beauty and dramatic intensity. It concentrates on the heritage of early English polyphony, masterpieces of the Renaissance and Baroque, and a diversity of twentieth century choral work. The choir is complemented for larger scale works by its orchestra, The Symphony of Harmony and Invention, and through it Harry Christophers brings fresh insights to the music of Purcell, Monteverdi, JS Bach and Handel. Many prize-winning recordings reflect the quality and inspiration of the group's work. The Sixteen now has its own record label, Coro , which makes available treasured releases of the past as well as new recordings and commissions. Each release contains a foreword written by Harry Christophers, and forms part of The Sixteen Edition on Coro. Coro now owns the entire recording output of The Sixteen on Collins Classics.

Recent years have seen the group's debuts at the Vienna Musikverein, the Brisbane, Covent Garden, Halle, Istanbul and Lucerne festivals, and at the Lisbon Opera in a new production of Monteverdi's "Il Ritorno d'Ulisse". In 2000 The Sixteen made a Choral Pilgrimage to the finest English cathedrals, returning pre-reformation music written for these buildings to its home. This met with a huge public response. In the last few months the group has made major tours of Japan and the USA, returning also to the Covent Garden Festival, New York's Lincoln Center, Manchester's Bridgewater Hall and London's Barbican Centre. The coming season sees debuts at the Scarlatti Festival, Italy, Theatre des Champs-Elysees, Paris, Mathias Church, Budapest and return visits to the Bath and Halle festivals.