Christmas Night: Carols of the Nativity

by City of London Sinfonia, Cambridge Singers, John Rutter

Overview

The Cambridge Singers, under the direction of conductor and composer John Rutter, are justly famous for their Christmas recordings. Other artists and ensembles make Christmas albums that have more swing, more charm, more energy -- but if you want pure, unadulterated, tear-in-the-eye Christmas Eve devotional spirit, there's nothing that compares to a Cambridge Singers album. Recognizing that fact, the group has made quite a few of them, and all are more or less interchangeable. Christmas Night is certainly as good a place to start as any; opening with a warm and slightly slower-than-usual take on the traditional German carol "In Dulci Jubilo," then proceeding through a surprisingly varied program of songs from British, Italian, American, German, and Basque sources, including the inevitable handful of pieces by Rutter himself. There are wonderful settings of the traditional "Cherry Tree Carol" (in which Mary, pregnant and craving cherries, gets a peevish response from Joseph, who suggests that whoever got her pregnant should pick cherries for her, at which point Jesus remonstrates Joseph from within the womb and commands the cherry trees to bow down for Mary so she can pick from them) and "Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day," as well as a very fine Italian carol called "Once, As I Remember" and a Renaissance piece by Samuel Scheidt called "O Little One Sweet." And Rutter's tunes are, typically, ripe and fulsome and gushing in that idiosyncratically British neo-romantic way. Highly recommended. ~ Rick Anderson

Product Details

Release Date:	11/06/2020
Label:	Collegium Records
UPC:	0040888052623
Rank:	101374

Tracks

1. In dulci jubilo
2. Adam lay ybounden
3. Christmas Night
4. Once, as I remember
5. A Spotless Rose
6. In the Bleak Mid-Winter
7. There Is a Flower
8. The Cherry Tree Carol
9. I Wonder as I Wander
10. Candlelight Carol
11. O Tannenbaum
12. Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day
13. A Virgin Most Pure
14. I Sing of a Maiden
15. Lute-book Lullaby
16. The Three Kings
17. Myn Lyking
18. O Little One Sweet
19. All My Heart This Night Rejoices
20. I Saw a Maiden
21. Away in a Manger
22. Nativity Carol

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Cambridge Singers   Primary Artist,Ensemble,Choir/Chorus
John Rutter   Primary Artist,Conductor
City of London Sinfonia   Primary Artist,Ensemble,Orchestra
Philipp Nicolai   Choir/Chorus
Ruth Holton   Soprano (Vocal)
Gerald Finley   Baritone (Vocal)
Nicholas Sears   Baritone (Vocal)

Technical Credits

Robert Lucas Pearsall   Arranger,Text Translation
Johann Georg Ebeling   Composer
Ernst Anschuetz   Text
Patrick Hadley   Composer
Catherine Winkworth   Text Translation
Edgar Pettman   Arranger,Composer
Philipp Nicolai   Composer
Percy Dearmer   Text Translation
H.N. Bate   Text Translation
Boris Ord   Composer
Peter Cornelius   Text,Composer
John Audelay   Text
Richard Runciman Terry   Composer
Nick Morris   Cover Design
Guido Reni   Cover Image
Traditional   Composer
Johann Sebastian Bach   Harmony
David Jacob   Digital Editing
Jillian White   Producer,Recording Producer
David Willcocks   Arranger
Charles Wood   Arranger
Geoffrey Shaw   Arranger
John Rutter   Text,Arranger,Composer,Text Translation
William James Kirkpatrick   Composer
Christina Rossetti   Text,Composer
John Jacob Niles   Collection
Campbell Hughes   Balance Engineer
Herbert Howells   Composer
George Ratcliffe Woodward   Text,Composer
Nick Findell   Design
Harold Darke   Composer
William Ballet   Text,Composer
Samuel Scheidt   Lyricist,Composer
Ivor Atkins   Arranger
Paul Gerhardt   Composer,Text
Patrick Lee Hadley   Composer
Thoinot Arbeau   Composer