Choir Of St John's College, Cambridge, Andrew Nethsingha - Christmas With St John's
STYLE: Choral RATING OUR PRODUCT CODE: 163611- LABEL: Signum Classics SIGCD458 FORMAT: CD Album ITEMS: 1
Reviewed by Steven Whitehead
The first Oxbridge choir that comes to many minds at Christmas time is King's at Cambridge but there are, of course, others. The Choir at St John's College, Cambridge has an illustrious history dating back to the 1670s and under the current director, Andrew Nethsingha, has built on this tradition to remain one of the finest traditional choirs of men and boys. On this recording the trebles stand out although the vocal balance and audio quality are equally good. Christmas presents a golden opportunity to present new music to a wide audience, and the role played by St John's in this area has been significant, as demonstrated by this recording of contemporary choral works featuring two works commissioned by the choir: Judith Bingham's "The Clouded Heaven" and Michael Finnissy's "John The Baptist". The programme begins with Bob Chilcott's "The Shepherd's Carol" commissioned by Stephen Cleobury (a former St John's organ scholar) for King's College Choir, and ends with "Creator Of The Stars Of Night", composed by another former St John's organ scholar, John Scott. In between we hear old favourites sung to the highest standard from "Adam Lay Ybounden" to "Ding, Dong, Merrily On High" as well as plenty of lesser-known songs. "People, Lok East" by Peter Tranchell and featuring some excellent work on the organ by Joseph Wicks was new to me and very fine it is too. Another standout is Mark Blatchly's arrangement of Franz Gruber's much-loved "Silent Night". Most of the material on this 66-minute recording will be unfamiliar to most visitors on their annual trip to celebrate Midnight Mass but there is much here that will interest choir leaders looking for something special and any listeners who want to go beyond the golden Christmas oldies may well find some new favourites to appreciate on this outstanding disc.
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