John Rutter’s own recording of his beloved Requiem–with his Cambridge Singers on Collegium–already has been reissued on a CD that includes the Magnificat. That performance, in its setting for choir and orchestra, remains the Requiem of choice, although this new version–with Rutter as recording producer–offers a first-rate rendition of the composer’s alternative chamber arrangement of the Requiem along with several rarely-heard–or never-before-recorded–choral and organ works. The Clare College Choir, with whom Rutter has a history both during his days as a music student and later as the choir’s director, gives the kind of technically solid and interpretively meaningful performance that we would expect, considering the composer’s hands-on involvement and well-known concern for accuracy, both musical and sonic. Like Caroline Ashton on Rutter’s Collegium disc, Clare’s Elin Manahan Thomas delivers the soprano solos with a clear, ringing, effortlessly natural quality, and the choir is a model of responsiveness and sensitivity in phrasing and dynamics, preserving ideal balance across registers and among vocal sections.
The reason Rutter fans will have to have this is for the premieres and for the handful of rarely-heard organ works–and any listeners who believe this composer to be rather predictable and one-sided in style will find numerous surprises to jar their impressions. Two of the premieres–the anthems Arise, shine and Come down, O Love divine–show a more complex Rutter, whose harmonic style and concept of textual development takes us into richer and far more intellectually/musically challenging territory than we’re used to, a nod both to Howells and to Britten. The organ pieces–both for solo (Toccata in seven) and duet (Variations on an Easter theme)–show a thorough command of the idiom and are laced with Rutter’s usual catchy rhythms and inventive melodic twists. One of the highlights is the anthem for choir and flute, Musica Dei domum, with its beautiful instrumental solo and organlike choral utterances. The sound, from Berkshire, England’s Douai Abbey, provides ideal space and resonance for these eminently singable–and listenable–pieces, works that belong in the collection of every true lover of choral music. [4/26/2003]
