Cambridge Singers Christmas Album

Product Details

For more than a decade, John Rutter and the Cambridge Singers have shared the Joy of Christmas with the world. The ethereal sound of perfectly blended voices, singing the most beautiful seasonal music ever composed never fails to touch the heart or lift the spirit. This year, John Rutter and the Cambridge Singers have assembled a NEW collection  compiled from the archives, including FOUR NEVER BEFORE RELEASED TRACKS! This is a holiday feast you will NOT want to miss!

Product Reviews

(5 stars) - Exquisite
This is the most exquisite CD of music with which most people will not be familiar. There are at least 10 absolutely gorgeous songs on this CD and the rest are highly listenable. This is not the jingle bells, sleigh ride, silver bells music that most people associate with Christmas but captures the beauty and tranquility of the season in its own unique fashion. It has quickly become my favorite CD of Christmas music and is enjoyable all year round due to the beauty of the songs.

(5 stars) - Gorgeous
Looking for some last-minute Christmas music to download? You can't do much better than this album. Incidentally, you can listen to this gorgeous music at any time of the year. John Rutter is best known as the director of the Cambridge Singers and as a composer. The sound he gets out of the group is amazing. Rutter himself arranged many of the selections on this album, some of which I've even sung, and they sound exquisite. There is some overlap on this album with Rutter's other Christmas albums, so if you own those, it probably wouldn't be wise to download the whole album. If you don't own any of Rutter's albums, this is the one to start with. My only quibble is that it doesn't include Rutter's stunning "There is a Flower." You can download that from his "John Rutter Christmas Album," however.

(5 stars) - Almost angelic
Choral music by the Cambridge Singers is always top-notch. An older album that might have sounded better with newer technology but no complaints. Has great vocals and orchestral support.

(4 stars) - Great choir, but mostly recycled material
I have the utmost respect for John Rutter and his Cambridge Singers, probably the best choir in the world (at least, the English-speaking world). I have almost all their CDs. Two of their Christmas CDs are "desert-island" class for this listener.

Unfortunately, I cannot give this otherwise excellent CD the same high marks. If they wanted to release a "best of Cambridge Christmas" CD, this would not be it. It does a few of the absolute best Christmas selections, including Sweelinck's "Hodie", Willcocks's breathtaking arrangement of "The Infant King", and Rutter's own quirky reading of "Personent Hodie". And it does contain a few tracks not previously released.

However, if you want the best of Cambridge and Christmas, start with "Christmas Night", which is always the first CD I pull out the day after Thanksgiving. The sound of the famliar Persall setting of "In Dulci Jubilo" sets my holiday in motion. And that CD also has Rutter's own magical "There is a flower". After that CD, get "Christmas with the Cambridge Singers", which has "The Infant King" and some other treasures.

So, you can't really go wrong with this CD, especially if you just want an introduction to how this fine ensemble addresses the most choir-friendly holiday of all. But if you're serious about getting all the good stuff, start with the other two mentioned above, then add "Christmas Day in the Morning" and the early "Christmas Star".

(5 stars) - Glittering Chrismas Music
I own virtually all of the CD's of John Rutter (whom I greatly admire) and the Cambridge Singers, and I am a fan of English Choral music in general. If I were asked to recommend only one of the many Cambridge Singers Christmas albums, or indeed one of any English Christmas album, a hard choice, this would be it. As others have noted, this CD is a compilation of songs from previous cds with four new releases. It is, I believe, longer playing than the other Cambridge albums. In style, it is a mostly quiet sounding collection--in fact several carols are sung a cappella-- with pieces ranging from carols such as "The Holly and the Ivy" to the more robust "Fantasia on Christmas Carols". In sum, this is a sensitively arranged and performed collection of beautiful Christmas music.

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