Manufacturer: EMI Classics
In an introduction to this disc of Christmas music, John Rutter tellingly commends the Christmas carol as one of the few forms that permits "serious" composers to write tunes, regardless of whatever political correctness rules the avant-garde of the day. And he's been exploiting that licence with a vengeance ever since, as a Cambridge student, he composed the jaunty little number that remains his ...
Manufacturer: Hyperion
Manufacturer: Universal Classics
Manufacturer: Naxos
Manufacturer: Archiv Produktion
The actress Prunella Scales is the narrator on this Naxos release which is unashamedly aimed at the children's Christmas market. Two seasonal works fill 64 minutes--Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite and Rimsky-Korsakov's Christmas Eve Suite. Scales is rather a plummy mother. Her elegant diction comes from a bygone dinner-party era. She sounds kind and warm but also somewhat distant as ...
Initially released in 1979, this album built on the success of the legendary Carols for Choirs volumes in establishing John Rutter's name with the wider public--and gave a strong hint that he was more than just a talented composer/arranger. As the many subsequent releases on the Collegium label have also shown, Rutter is a deeply sensitive and musical conductor, alive to the colour of ...
