This mid-price collection of traditional songs (formerly 'The Lark in the Clear Air) includes John Rutter's widely-performed cycles 'A Sprig of Thyme' and 'Five Traditional Songs', alongside Vaughan Williams' 'Five English Folk Songs' and arrangements by other composers. Now with Rutter's arrangement of 'Searching for Lambs', never before released on CD.

Classical Music

The theme of this album is the birth of Christ, reflected in the words and music of twenty-two carols spanning more than six centuries. Some of these carols have long been widely known and loved; others have become so thanks to the annual Christmas Eve Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at King’s College, Cambridge; a few are newly written. But all of them focus on the central event of the Christmas story – the birth at Bethlehem – and on the characters in that story: the angels, the shepherds, the wise men, and the mother with her child.

John Rutter writes: “This has always been my favorite among the Christmas albums I have devised and conducted, but digital sound restoration techniques have made huge advances in the years since it was recorded and it was time to give it a spring-clean. In remastering it, it has been possible to bring the sound of the choir and the orchestra to life, and I have been able to enjoy it anew. The Cambridge Singers in 1985 were at the top of their game, and the choir list includes at least two singers who are now internationally renowned as soloists. We hope you will enjoy this classic recording in its newly restored form.”

CONTENTS:

• In dulci jubilo
• Ord: Adam lay ybounden
• Christmas Night
• Once, As I Remember
• Howells: A Spotless Rose
• Darke: In the Bleak Midwinter
• Rutter: There Is a Flower
• The Cherry-Tree Carol
• Niles: I Wonder as I Wander
• Rutter: Candlelight Carol
• Tannenbaum
• Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day
• A Virgin Most Pure
• Hadley, P: I sing of a maiden
• Ballet: Lute-Book Lullaby
• Cornelius: The Three Kings
• Richard R. Terry: Myn Lyking
• Bach, J S: O Jesulein süß, BWV493
• Ebeling: All my heart this night rejoices
• I Saw a Maiden
  
• Kirkpatrick: Away in a Manger
• Rutter: Nativity Carol

Over the years John Rutter's Christmas recordings with his outstanding Cambridge Singers have become essential components of holiday tradition for choral music fans around the world. Throughout the 1980s and early '90s Rutter's legions of followers were treated to several now-classic CD albums for Collegium, including Christmas Night, Christmas with the Cambridge Singers, and Christmas Day in the Morning. It's from these recordings that the present program was drawn, with the addition of two newly issued tracks--Dormi, Jesu and Love came down at Christmas. Yes, if you already own those other discs, for completeness' sake and, well, just because it's a new Rutter release, you'll still have to have this one. And that's not a bad thing at all, especially since all of these tracks have been remastered in notably clearer, more vibrant sound than their 10- or 15-year-old predecessors.

The selections focus on Rutter's own compositions, with "a sprinkling" of his arrangements of traditional carols organized (in typical Rutter/Cambridge Singers fashion) into a thematically grouped program--Prologue, The Christmas Story, Christmas Night, Christmas reflections, Christmas Joy, and Epilogue--the latter consisting of a lovely setting of Silent Night, made for a 1988 BBC television production. And speaking of classics, among the 23 pieces heard here is Rutter's masterpiece, What sweeter music, a staple of Christmas programs everywhere (and a continuing presence in a popular series of Volvo commercials), sounding even more glorious than ever. [11/23/2002]

--David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com

'This is an enchanting recording' Church Music Quarterly Three Christmas Fables for children and eavesdropping adults. (Formerly available on COLCD115)

John Rutter's latest major work Visions is a four-movement showpiece for solo violin, string orchestra, harp and choir of treble voices, based on the theme of Jerusalem, the Holy City of prophetic imaginations. It was composed at the invitation of the 2016 Menuhin Competition and premiered at a Festival concert in London's historic Temple Church by Kerson Leong, winner of the 2010 Junior Menuhin Prize, and the Choristers of the Temple Church. They are joined by the Cambridge Singers and the young and vibran tAurora Orchestra. Requiem, one of Rutter's most well-known and widely-performed pieces, was originally recorded by John Rutter in the 1980's. Rutter felt it would be interesting to give a new generation of the Cambridge Singers an opportunity to see what they could do with what is now a familiar choral work.

John Rutter writes: Tranquillity is a state of mind. You might be more likely to describe a favorite countryside scene rather than a person as ‘tranquil’, but you are really describing the effect it has on you. You feel calm, serene, still, at peace, relaxed, untroubled, chilled-out . . . perhaps we have so many different words for this state of mind because it is so important, and yet so elusive in an often noisy, frantic world.

Music has an extraordinary power to evoke tranquillity – as is revealed in the eleven pieces I have chosen to make up this collection. Ten of them happen to be among my personal favorites, drawn from the music of seven composers, plus the treasure trove of anonymous folk music, and I have added an orchestral version of my choral setting of Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace, a text formerly believed to be by St Francis of Assisi.

CONTENTS:

• trad.: She moved through the fair
• Satie: Gymnopédie No. 1
• Delius: On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring
• Ravel: Pavane pour une infante défunte
• Rutter: Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace
• Grieg: Symphonic Dance, Op. 64 No. 2
• Bach: Bist du bei mir [When you are with me]
• Ravel: Sonatine: Mouvement de Menuet
• Debussy: Suite bergamasque: Clair de lune
• Handel: Semele: Where’er you walk
• Rutter: Sheep may safely graze

In the Poet's Garden: Choral settings by John Rutter of Shakespeare, Wordsworth, James Weldon Johnson, Charles Causley and others. John is joined by The Cambridge Singers, Melanie Marshall, Roderick Williams, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Taplow Young Voices, Catrin Finch and Matthew Jorysz (solo piano) in this recording of choral works by John Rutter. I'll make me a world; London Town; Dancing Tree; Three Shakespeare Songs; When music sounds. John Rutter writes: Any composer interested in vocal and choral music is both inspired and nourished by poetry. Second only to music, words are my great love, and from my earliest years I have enjoyed seeking out poetry that seems to invite musical setting. This album brings together some of my recent choral music where the words provided the first inspiration and the music followed.

Signed copies of our October release COLCD 141. Choral settings of Shakespeare, Wordsworth, James Weldon Johnson, Charles Causley and others, by John Rutter

Hail, Gladdening Light: Music of the English Church

'Another red-letter entry in the Collegium/Cambridge Singers canon' - Choral Review

This recording is dedicated to unaccompanied English church music, sung in the beautiful acoustic of the Lady Chapel of Ely Cathedral. The 23 motets and anthems are drawn from three key periods: the Reformation, in the sixteenth century; the Restoration, in the later seventeenth century; and the Anglican revival, in the mid-nineteenth century. "An individual record of exceptional warmth and delight." -- Gramophone

Another classic from the John Rutter and the Cambridge Singers, whose recordings have become a tradition of Christmas around the world.

REVIEW:

Christmas Star is an entertaining collection of familiar holiday tunes and carols, all professionally performed by the Cambridge Singers. This is good, straight a cappella holiday mus­ic and should satisfy fans of that style[.]

­– All Music Guide (Stephen Thomas Erlewine)