Hyperion Records
Click album cover image to view the sleeve notes
CDA66947

Buy? £13.99

Recording details: January 1997
Romsey Abbey, Hampshire, United Kingdom
Produced by Mark Brown
Engineered by Antony Howell & Julian Millard
Release date: June 1997
Total duration: 67 minutes 17 seconds
Available for download on iTunes: Yes

View sleeve notes/artwork

GRAMOPHONE EDITOR'S CHOICE

'A disc to delight all those who admire Rutter's choral writing. Full of delights and with something for everyone. Certainly a must!' (Organists' Review)

'Sensitive, beautifully blended singing and playing. First class' (Amazon.co.uk)

'A radiant richness of sound.' (The Penguin Guide to Compact Discs)

'Here is music finely crafted, written with love for the art and an especial care for choral sound' (Gramophone)

John Rutter (b1945)
Requiem & other choral works
Polyphony, Bournemouth Sinfonietta, Stephen Layton (conductor)
Requiem
1
Movement 1: Requiem aeternam  [5:32]
2
Movement 2: Out of the deep  [5:28]
3
Movement 3: Pie Jesu  [3:56]
Rosa Mannion (soprano)
4
Movement 4: Sanctus  [1:47]
5
Movement 5: Agnus Dei  [6:26]
6
Movement 6: The Lord is my shepherd  [5:02]
7
Movement 7: Lux aeterna  [6:15]
Rosa Mannion (soprano)
8
Hymn to the Creator of Light 'Glory be to thee, O Lord, glory be to thee'  [6:29]
9
God be in my head  [1:37]
10
A Gaelic blessing 'Deep peace of the running wave to you'  [1:49]
Psalmfest
11
No 5: Cantate Domino  [4:39]
12
Open thou mine eyes  [2:39]
13
A prayer of Saint Patrick 'Christ be with me, Christ within me'  [1:36]
14
A choral fanfare 'Blow up the trumpet in the new moon'  [2:03]
Birthday madrigals
15
No 2: Draw on, sweet night  [5:41]
Birthday madrigals
16
No 4: My true love hath my heart  [3:30]
17
The Lord bless you and keep you  [2:48]
John Rutter composed his Requiem in 1985. The work follows the precedents of Brahms and Fauré in using carefully selected texts in place of much of the standard Missa Pro defunctis sequence. The resulting composition has an arch-like formal structure within which is contained some of Rutter's most haunting (and, in the case of 'The Lord is my shepherd', well known) choral music to date.

Also included are two items from the Birthday madrigals collection composed in honour of the jazz pianist George Shearing, and eight further sacred works. The double-choir Hymn to the Creator of Light is a wonderful composition, far removed from the romantic style with which Rutter has sometimes been associated; the work here receives its first recording. The Lord bless you and keep you makes a most felicitous ending to the programme - one of those tunes that just will not leave your head.