Christiana Canticles

John Rutter studied music at Clare College, Cambridge and first came to notice as a composer and arranger of Christmas carols and other choral pieces during those early years; today his compositions, including such concert-length works as Requiem, Magnificat, Mass of the Children, The Gift of Life, and Visions are performed around the world. John edits the Oxford Choral Classics series, and, with Sir David Willcocks, co-edited four volumes of Carols for Choirs. In 1983 he formed his own choir The Cambridge Singers, with whom he has made numerous recordings on the Collegium Records label, and he appears regularly in several countries as a guest conductor and choral ambassador. John holds a Lambeth Doctorate in Music, and in 2007 was awarded a CBE for services to music. In September 2023, he received the Ivors Academy Fellowship, and in 2024 he was knighted in the King's Birthday Honours.

Rutter's Christiana Canticles are a model of pragmatism - touching and serenely beautiful. The upper-voice led Magnificat trips along gracefully, with an appropriately wistful 'He remembering' section, and the double-arched structure of the lower-voice led Nunc dimittis is formally satisfying. The organ part is thoroughly manageable and the choral writing is craftsmanlike in the extreme, only dividing (suitably enough) for the 'and to be the glory' section in the Nunc dimittis.