To celebrate their thirtieth anniversary, the three hundred and fiftieth anniversary of Henry Purcell’s birth (1659) and James MacMillan’s fiftieth birthday (16 July 2009), The Sixteen recorded live at the first concert on the 2009 Choral Pilgrimage a brand new disc of music dedicated to these most innovative of British composers. Purcell’s extraordinary use of harmony sounds as modern today as it must have sounded in the seventeenth century. Putting his heartfelt Funeral Sentences alongside James MacMillan’s powerfully emotive A Child’s Prayer, written in memory of the Dunblane Tragedy, and his hauntingly beautiful O bone Jesu (a piece originally commissioned by The Sixteen) will give the listener the chance to experience the true power of this music.

To celebrate their own thirtieth anniversary, the three-hundred-and-fiftieth anniversary of the birth in 1659 of Henry Purcell, and the fiftieth birthday of James MacMillan on 16 July 2009, at the first concert of the 2009 Choral Pilgrimage series The Sixteen recorded live a disc of music devoted to these most innovative of British composers. Purcell’s extraordinary use of harmony sounds as modern today as it must have sounded in the seventeenth century. Hearing Purcell’s heartfelt Funeral Sentences alongside MacMillan’s powerfully emotive A Child’s Prayer, written in memory of the Dunblane tragedy, and hauntingly beautiful O bone Jesu, a piece commissioned by The Sixteen, the listener has the chance to experience the true power of this music.