MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2023
Approaching 60,000 reviews
and more.. 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
BARGAIN OF THE MONTH


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos 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

 

 

alternatively
CD: MDT AmazonUK AmazonUS

John RUTTER (b.1945)
The Original Carols from Clare
Shepherd's Pipe Carol (1967) [2:57]
Infant Holy, infant lowly [3:15]
Once in Royal David's City [4:01]
Quem Pastores Laudavere [2:25]
Rocking [3:52]
A nativity carol [4:10]
Eight Christmas Carols: Set 1 [10:32]
Eight Christmas Carols: Set 2 [12:33]
O Little Town of Bethlehem [3:43]
Flemish Carol [1:30]
Twelve Christmas Carols: Set 1 [20:08]
Twelve Christmas Carols: Set 2 [18:59]
Simon Vaughan (baritone), Jeremy Blandford (organ)
Clare College Singers and Orchestra/John Rutter
rec. 9-10 November 1966, 31 January-1 February 1968, Lady Chapel, Ely Cathedral, ADD
EMI CLASSICS 9469472 [43:48 + 44:26]

 

Experience Classicsonline


I discovered John Rutter’s music with a performance of his first major work for chorus and orchestra – The Falcon (1969). If I remember correctly, he wrote this as his degree exercise and David Willcocks, as he was then, conducted the première in Cambridge and, a few days later, brought it to the Bradford Choral Society, of which he was the chief conductor, and gave it in St George’s Hall in Bradford. It is available on Collegium COLCD 114, where it is conducted by the composer, and is coupled with the Two Festival Anthems and the Magnificat. Rutter hasn’t looked back since then. He worked on OUP’s highly successful publications Carols for Choirs, and has written some of the most attractive and enjoyable choral music of the post-war period. I have been a fan since that first encounter with his work and therefore I am more than pleased to see this music, in these performances, back in the catalogue.

Rutter appeared at exactly the right time for church music. In the early 1960s it had fallen into the doldrums, with Trendy Revs, accompanied by the Happy–Clappy brigade, thinking to update music, and by default bring young people into the Church, employed local guitarists, with their friend, the drummer, to create a more contemporary sound in the Services. It was a mistake, yet examples of it can still be seen on BBC TV’s weekly programme Songs of Praise when we can all cringe in embarrassment at the naiveté of it all. What Rutter achieved was to marry a popular voice, with an obvious enthusiasm and charm and create music which is both attractive and devotional. Oddly, although Rutter has written anthems, masses, a requiem and much else, he’s never written a set of Canticles for the Evensong service. I do hope that, at some point, he will fill this gap for a Magnificat and Nunc dimittis from him would be a major addition to the repertoire.

These two disks contain 28 carols, some original, many arrangements of old favourites, clothed in Rutter’s distinctive orchestral style, in performances which simply effervesce with enthusiasm. Considering that these recordings are over 40 years old, the sound is astonishingly good, bright and clear. The notes, by Rutter himself, are a lesson in saying everything you have to say clearly and succinctly. In short, these disks are a joy. You don’t have to ration yourself to listening to them purely at Christmas, the music is too good to be kept for one time of the year. Enjoy them all the year round. I shall.

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.