- The Cambridge Singers Collection CD 1993 Collegium
- MPN: CSCD501
- Released: Jun 14, 1993
- Record Label: Collegium Records
- Format: CD
- Number of Discs: 1
- Genre: Classical,Chamber Music, Concertos, Baroque (c.1600-1750), Early Music, Opera & Vocal, Folk, Miscellaneous
- UPC: 040888050124
- All Artists: Anton Bruckner, Gregorian Chant, Claude Debussy, Robert Lucas Pearsall, Peter [composer] Philips, Henry Purcell, John Rutter, Charles Villiers Stanford, John Taverner, Cambridge Singers
Product Description:
This disc is a sampler of other Cambridge Singers discs. The tracks on the album were recorded at different times and places, including the regular venues for the Cambridge Singers such as the Lady Chapel at Ely Cathedral and the Great Hall of University College School, London.
Music
Selections on this disc come from eight different Collegium recordings, representing a wide range of the Cambridge Singers" work. Pieces here include secular and sacred work, ancient and modern. There are a cappella and accompanied pieces. Composers represented here include Stanford, Bruckner, Verdi, Debussy, Taverner and Purcell, as well as a number of pieces by John Rutter himself. The latter pieces include the first movement of Rutter's wonderful 'Magnificat'.
Guest performers include the King's Singers and the City of London Sinfonia, Richard Baker as a narrator and Wayne Marshall on the organ.
The music is very well done; Rutter's ear for tone and balance is superb, and his building of this ensemble of singers has retained a consistent beauty and grace through the years. Their best pieces are liturgical and religious pieces, but there is a good deal of power and fun in the secular and folk songs.
Liner Notes
The notes for this recording include the titles and words of each anthem or hymn. The notes for each piece also includes brief biographical information of the composer, and unique information about each work, when particular composers are represented more than once. One thing conspicuously missing is much biographical information about John Rutter, or any descriptive information about the Cambridge Singers apart from the most basic of information.
John Rutter
Rutter was born in London and educated at Clare College, Cambridge. This was where his career as a composer, arranger and conductor began. His early work was with groups at King's College Chapel at Cambridge as well as the Bath Choir and Philharmonic Orchestra. He has worked for the BBC providing music for educational series such as 'The Archaeology of the Bible Lands', until in 1979 he began forming the Cambridge Singers, and has continued a remarkable career of performance and recording as their director ever since.
The Cambridge Singers
The Cambridge Singers are a mixed choir of voices, many of whom were members of choir of Rutter's college, Clare College, Cambridge. While they specialise in English and Latin liturgical pieces, they have a wide range of recordings that span from modern compositions (including a remarkable requiem by Rutter) to English folk songs of the Middle Ages. Many are former members of the choir of Clare College and other Cambridge collegiate choirs (hence the name, Cambridge Singers). In the quarter-century since the founding, the Cambridge Singers have produced an impressive body of recordings.
Track listing
1. Chansons de Charles d'Orleans (3), song cycle for chorus, L. 92: No. 1, "Dieu! qu'il la fait bon reg
2. Chansons de Charles d'Orleans (3), song cycle for chorus, L. 92: No. 2, "Quand j'ai ouy le tambourin
3. Chansons de Charles d'Orleans (3), song cycle for chorus, L. 92: No. 3, "Yver, vous n'ests qu'un vil
4. The Keel Row, for voice & piano (Northumbrian Folk Song)
5. The Willow Tree
6. Regina caeli laetare
7. Ave Maria (II), motet for chorus in F major, WAB 6
8. Sacred Pieces (4), for chorus & orchestra (Quattro pezzi sacri): Laudi alla Vergine Maria
9. Evening Service (Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis) in G major, Op. 81: Magnificat in G
10. Morning Service (Te Deum, Benedictus, Jubilate) in C major, Op. 115: Te Deum in C
11. Remember not, Lord, our offences, anthem for chorus & organ, Z. 50
12. Christe Jesu, pastor bone, antiphon for 5 voices (lacks tenor part)
13. O Beatum et Sacrosanctum Diem for 5 voices
14. Lay a Garland, song
15. Fancies, a cycle of choral settings with small orchestra: Riddle Song
16. Childhood Lyrics (5) for unaccompanied choir: Sing a song of sixpence
17. Suite Antique, for flute, harpsichord & strings: Waltz
18. Wind in the Willows, for narrator, vocal ensemble & orchestra: Opening extract
19. All Creatures of Our God and King for chorus, organ & orchestra: I Movement
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