^{CURATED BY HARRY CHRISTOPHERS | FIRST PUBLISHED 4 APR 2026}

Acclaimed conductor and Founder of The Sixteen, Harry Christophers has spent his career bringing Renaissance and Baroque music to life, though his tastes span centuries. To accompany our feature interview, he curated a playlist specially for Continuo Connect, sharing the works that have inspired him, with personal reflections on their history and emotion. From John Sheppard’s Tudor choral gems to Haydn’s wit, Bach’s intensity, and MacMillan’s modern masterpieces, these tracks reveal the music that moves him most.

For someone who has spent most of his life immersed in the music of the Renaissance and the Baroque with the odd excursion into the 21st century, it might come as a bit of a surprise that when I was at university, I soaked up Mahler. Give me Mahler any day of the week and I’m a happy man, and it doesn’t get any better than the Adagio from his Ninth Symphony, especially in the hands of Simon Rattle.

But it was also when I was at Oxford that I got the Renaissance music bug. Can there be any more beautiful piece of Tudor music than John Sheppard’s Libera nos? It is a gem where the human voice can express itself in the most personal way. Although composed almost 500 years ago, its sentiments are so pertinent to today’s world. ‘Free us, save us, defend us’. This is music that warms the heart and gives us hope now and for the future.

One of the composers who I think has benefited so much from the ‘Early Music movement’ is Purcell. This little epitaph sums him up:

Sometimes a HERO in an Age appears,
But scarce a PURCELL in a Thousand Years.

A Londoner through and through, and only 35 when he died, but he lived through a period of unparalleled social and political change. His welcome ode, Sound the trumpet! Beat the drum! is pure genius; not a trumpet or drum in sight as the players were otherwise engaged with the threat of invasion, he can take the most awkward of librettos and turn the language into sheer beauty. And in this particular ode we get the bonus of his Chaconne from King Arthur.

Bach has a special place in the hearts of all musicians, and surely his St Matthew Passion is one of the greatest works ever written. To hear my good friend, Michael Chance, sing ‘Erbarme dich’ is one of the most intensely emotional things I have ever heard.

From heartbreak to the effervescence and wit of Handel and Haydn... Handel’s oratorios never cease to amaze me; he always manages to delve deeply into the subject matter and even deeper into the characters. And then there are his choruses – this sequence at the opening of Act II of his oratorio, Belshazzar, is one of his extended choruses in three contrasting sections. I had the honour of being the Artistic Director of the Handel and Haydn Society in Boston for many years, and they are the ones that really introduced me to Haydn. When I began working on his many symphonies, I could not believe the inventiveness, creativity, and above all the wit he conjures up. The second movement from his Military Symphony (No. 100) is just brilliant.

My school days were spent either singing or playing the clarinet and, even though this recording is over 30 years old, Sabine Meyer’s rendition of Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto is ravishing. I only wish that I could have played like her.

Stravinsky’s music has always fascinated me, and when I was at Oxford, I remember hearing his Symphony of Psalms and vowed that one day I would conduct it. That wish did come true and I even recorded it, but I also had the good fortune to spend a few years as a member of the BBC Singers, and in those days we worked a lot with Pierre Boulez. His insights into Stravinsky’s music were second to none.

Over the past 25 years, I have had the good fortune to have benefitted from an amazing partnership with James MacMillan. Over time, and thanks to the amazing support of the Genesis Foundation, James has written numerous works for us. They are all brilliant, but his Stabat Mater is a masterpiece destined to be in the sacred repertoire for centuries to come. James’s understanding of the scripture is unequalled, and his setting of the Stabat Mater takes you through every emotion possible.

Listen on Spotify.

TRACK LIST

1. Sheppard Libera Nos I & II | The Sixteen Choir & Harry Christophers
2-9. Purcell Sound the trumpet, beat the drum, Z335 | The Sixteen Choir & Harry Christophers
10. JS Bach St Matthew Passion, BWV 244, Pt II: No. 39 ‘Erbarme dich’ | Michael Chance, English Baroque Soloists & John Eliot Gardiner
11. Handel Belshazzar, HWV 61: ‘See, from his post Euphrates flies!’ | Les Arts Florissants & William Christie
12. Haydn Symphony No. 100 in G, Hob. I:100 Military: II. Allegretto | Handel and Haydn Society & Harry Christophers
13. Mozart Clarinet Concerto in A, K622: I. Allegro | Sabine Meyer, Staatskapelle Dresden & Hans Vonk
14. Mahler Symphony No. 9 in D: IV. Adagio. Sehr langsam und noch zurückhaltend | Berliner Philharmoniker & Sir Simon Rattle
15. Stravinsky Symphony of Psalms, K52: III. ‘Alleluia, laudate Dominum’ (Psalm 150) | Rundfunkchor Berlin, Berliner Philharmoniker & Pierre Boulez
16. James MacMillan Stabat Mater: ‘Sancta Maria agas’ | The Sixteen Choir, Britten Sinfonia & Harry Christophers