The Sixteen, bright stars of the Baroque, have plenty to say on 20th-century repertoire (witness their excellent Britten series on Collins). Underpin them with the BBC Philharmonic and it might seem a magic formula. Ives’s unearthly The Unanswered Question holds few problems for instrumental players weaned on Maxwell Davies – no more than do the brilliant wind roulades of Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms. Deft BBC teamwork and a chamber articulation to woodwind and brass helps this Koussevitzky-commissioned masterpiece to shed its often hammy ‘big band’ sound, creeping closer to the subtle, leaner sonorities of his later choral works. It gains. The singing varies. Too many dynamic shifts sound prosaic or under-prepared; fortes are forced, with muddy results. The vocal blend (happier in lower voices) can seem haphazard and colours the Tippett, where the men’s roars – contrast the lovely, sensual soprano solo – seem crude. Get this disc, instead, for the rare, late Poulenc – his New York-commissioned Sept répons. It is a curiously under-recorded devotional work, bleeding with pathos yet pumping energy, its exoticism enhanced by slightly breathy, tender solos, and scintillatingly sung with just those crucial missing qualities of awe and freshness. A million times more refined than what goes before.

First and foremost, Domenico Scarlatti is regarded as the greatest composer of binary harpsichord sonatas of all time, and that is as it should be: he wrote more than 600 of them and many are constantly recorded and played. However, early in his Italian career, Scarlatti developed a proven track record as a composer of sacred music, some of it under the watchful eye of his father, Alessandro Scarlatti, believed by many at the time as the top composer of the age. The fact most readily observed in regard to Domenico's sacred music is that his Stabat mater, composed in 1717 or 1718, was the work within that genre replaced in Rome by Giovanni Pergolesi's Stabat mater around 1735. The Scarlatti work was conceived in a different style to different strictures; while it has become the most recorded of Scarlatti's sacred works, it definitely suffers when paired with the Pergolesi owing to its immediacy and familiarity. On Coro's Iste Confessor, the Sixteen led by Harry Christophers widely opt for Scarlatti's own, other sacred music as filler to the "Stabat mater with results fairer to the composer and quite favorable to listeners.

Buxtehude’s cantata cycle, Membra Jesu Nostri, is a unique work. Based on texts from a medieval Latin hymn, ‘Salve mundi salutare’, the cycle contains seven cantatas each dedicated to a different part of Christ’s crucified body. The texts are based on the concept of an observer contemplating Christ’s body on the cross starting with his feet and moving up to his knees, hands, side, breast, heart and finally his head. Buxtehude plays cleverly with musical colours and textures and changes the mixture of voices and instruments to dramatic effect as the work develops.

What could be more welcome than a little repose and respite from the demands of daily life? The works on this album tell stories of life and love, of tranquillity and stillness, some naïve and simple, others infused with complex imagery. This beautiful album features a stunning selection of music spanning over 500 years. From exuberant early works such as Hoyda, hoyda, jolly rutterkin and I am a jolly foster to Will Todd's sublime Whisper Him my name, Maxwell Davies' Lullabye for Lucy, Stanford's glorious The Blue Bird, and a new commission from Roderick Williams, this is truly music to escape to.

Harry Christophers's account, with The Sixteen Choir and Orchestra it was recorded live in the rich acoustic of St John's Smith Square, London, in March 1989, with a chorus of eighteen and a period instrument band of twenty-one. Christophers leads a solid, warm, and effective account of the 1724 version. Ian Partridge is a distinctive and compassionate Evangelist; the unusual timbre of his elegant, mature voice often calls to mind that of Aksel Schiøtz. Once again, the singing and the playing are of a particularly high quality. Having opted for the original versions of 'Betrachte meine Seel' and 'Erwäge', Christophers makes extensive use of the lute as a continuo instrument in other portions of the Passion.

Jephtha (1751) was Handel's last oratorio. It does not have quite the dramatic sweep of Messiah or Israel in Egypt, but it contains many moments equal to anything in Handel. These include the choruses, several of which are among the most dramatically effective fugues ever composed. One attractive feature of this excellent recording of the oratorio under the directorship of Harry Christophers is that these choruses are crystal clear in texture, with all the words intelligible: hard enough for the soloists, who likewise won't have you turning to the booklet, and well-nigh remarkable for a chorus. Christophers' group the Sixteen consists of 18 members here, plus an orchestra of 30, so this is a fairly sizable performance by current standards.

As usual with Harry Christophers and the Sixteen, the performance is very "clean", in some places perhaps to the point of being "clinical". There are, nevertheless, a number of "peaks" (such as when Michael George begins his "Sicut sagittae in manu potentis" or in the "De torrente in via bibet" for two sopranos and choir towards the end of the Dixit Dominus). … "Silete Venti" by far excels the other two pieces on the disc. Lynne Dawson, possibly the best female Handelian in the entire English early music scene, performs the whole motet with warmth, inner conviction and personal charm, and her vocal timbre, pure as a bell, magnificently complements Handel's typical strings-with-oboes orchestral sound. All the other soloists (only to be heard in the Nisi Dominus and the Dixit Dominus) are good, and that includes the soloists from the choir in their short moments of glory.

Harry Christophers and The Sixteen have long been celebrated for their recordings and performances of Handel. Over the past three decades Harry Christophers and his award-winning ensemble have expanded their Handel repertoire to take in his greatest works. They have also made numerous recordings of Handel’s masterpieces and this twelve CD boxed set features a selection of some of their finest discs along with three remarkable solo albums featuring The Sixteen’s celebrated orchestra and acclaimed sopranos Sarah Connolly, Ann Murray and Elin Manahan Thomas.