THE SIXTEEN

THE SIXTEEN

Choral Pilgrimage 2011 at Walsingham

24.09.11

The shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham is celebrating 950 years. New etched glass windows in the Chapel of Reconciliation tell the story of Richeldis's vision, and a series of celebratory events culminated in a visit from The Sixteen.

Harry Christophers' choir has been making choral pilgrimages for years, but few of their concerts can have been more appropriately hosted, in a building whose prime function is to receive pilgrims from all over the world.

And its wooden vault, plus the fact that no listener is more than 10 metres from the choir, meant that we were treated to a warm, immediate sound from the 18 singers, directed on this occasion by Eamonn Dougan.

The programme explored, appropriately, the Marian music of Tomás Luis de Victoria, who died four hundred years ago. It ended with the sublime Litaniae Beatae Mariae, a glorious tapestry of prayers and supplications to the Virgin.

This year's pilgrimage began in March, and ends in Brighton in November.