MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

REVIEW


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 

cover image

availability
CD: MDT AmazonUK AmazonUS

John RUTTER (b. 1945)
Magnificat (1990) [38:33]
Brother Heinrich’s Christmas - A Fable with music (1982) [23:03]
Carmen Fuggiss (soprano); Arndt Schmöle (speaker); Knabenchor Hannover
Nürnberger Symphoniker/Jörg Breiding
rec. Meistersingerhalle, Nürnberg 16-17 December 2006. DDD.
RONDEAU ROP7004 [61:36]

Experience Classicsonline

John Rutter’s Magnificat hits exactly the right tone for the words, which are a shout of praise from the Virgin Mary. A composer friend of mine once asked his pregnant partner what being pregnant felt like and she said that it made her feel ecstatic and that is how he set the words - with an heightened feeling of ecstasy in his music. Rutter takes a different, yet equally valid, road and gives us an interpretation of the words which emphasises the joy experienced by a new, or soon to be, mother. He has time for reflection, and there is a good balance between the extrovert and intimate. As you’d expect with Rutter, there’s a wealth of good tunes, all very singable. Would that more contemporary composers understood the voice as well as Rutter. The orchestration is brilliant and very colourful, with lots of trumpet fanfares complementing the festive spirit of the music.

Brother Heinrich’s Christmas is a different matter entirely, in that it is a story told by a speaker, with orchestral accompaniment. This simple tale, by Rutter himself, concerns the 14th-century Dominican mystic Heinrich Suso who, according to legend, notated the carol In dulci jubilo after it had been sung to him by a band of angels. He is here aided by Sigismund, his donkey! As you’d expect from a German performance, the story is told in a German translation, but that shouldn’t worry anyone for the language is quite simple and it could make a good aid for a child learning German. It might also interest them in classical music!

This is a very enjoyable disk; indeed, everything about it is a delight. Carmen Fuggiss is a good soloist in the Magnificat, with her rich tone and good vocal control, displaying a fine sense of what vibrato is all about. Speaker Arndt Schmöle is a friendly Uncle of a storyteller, doing the voices with a smile on his face - you can hear it - and obviously enjoying himself. The Hannover Children’s Choir is clearly a well drilled ensemble which gives a very spirited performance. That said, I can’t help thinking that of all works a setting of the Magnificat screams out for women’s voices! Jörg Breiding directs straightforward performances, letting the music speak for itself and not imposing himself or any “special” ideas.

Both works have been recorded by Rutter himself. Brother Heinrich’s Christmas can be found on a very entertaining disk called Three Musical Fables, where it is coupled with The Reluctant Dragon and The Wind in the Willows, performed by Richard Baker and Brian Kay with the Cambridge Singers, the King's Singers and the City of London Sinfonia conducted by both Richard Hickox and John Rutter himself (Collegium CSCD 513). The Magnificat can be found (coupled with The Falcon and Two Festival Anthems), in an authoritative performance by the Cambridge Singers, the Choristers of St Paul's Cathedral, the City of London Sinfonia under the composer’s direction (Collegium COLCD 113) or, at mid-price the same performance can be found coupled with Rutter’s sublime Requiem (Collegium CSCD 504).

I have to say that the composer-led performances must take precedence in any recomendation, but this disk is very fine, and despite there being the composer’s own recordings available, it’s always good to hear a different interpretation. Even if the thought of Brother Heinrich’s Christmas in German doesn’t appeal, this performance of the Magnificat is splendid and well worth hearing. The disk is presented in a gatefold sleeve and half the booklet is concerned with a delightful picture-book which accompanies the Brother Heinrich story. The notes are in German and English.

Bob Briggs



 

 

 

 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools






Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.