The only problem with this typically accomplished performance by Harry Christophers and the Sixteen was the enormous nave of York Minster. The architecture of the largest Gothic church in northern Europe is both a blessing and a curse. The fading light of a fine summer evening bathed the performers in a soft glow that was an undeniable enhancement of ambience, but some essential musical detail was lost in the building's reverberation.
Purcell was associated with Protestant institutions all his working life, so the production of a few short overtly Catholic works has always puzzled scholars. "Jehova, quam multi sunt hostes mei" was unsuitable for the Minster: the Sixteen was ragged in the dramatic, declamatory introduction, and in animated passages the acoustic blurred the unity of the ensemble. The same problem afflicted "Beati omnes qui timent Dominum", and, ironically, these choral performances supported the Purcell experts' theory that these works were composed for private domestic performance by single voices.
However, the remainder of the programme was ideal for the Minster, featuring slower-moving chordal sequences, gorgeous suspensions, and a mixture of madrigal and archaic styles. Christophers gently moulded the penitential beauty of Purcell's "Remember not, Lord, our offences", and, as with the Funeral Sentences, reminded one how Purcell's seemingly simplest music disguises astonishing chromatic passion and exquisite word-painting.
The Sixteen contrasted Purcell with several works by the lesser-known Robert Ramsey. The potent counterpoint of several motets in Latin and English revealed Ramsey to be a composer of emotional depth and musical imagination. "When David heard" was less truthful than the setting by Thomas Tomkins one usually hears, but "How are the mighty fallen" mingled tenderness and mournfulness in a succession of fabulously charged transitions.
By the end of this imaginative programme, the Sixteen confirmed their reputation as supreme masters of their art, and charismatically conquered the acoustic that had initially threatened to hinder them.
