INKPOT#84 CLASSICAL MUSIC REVIEWS: RUTTER Te Deum and other church music. Cambridge Singers/City of London Sinfonia/Rutter (Collegium)

The Cambridge Singers · City of London Sinfonia

with John Scott organ ·
conducted by John Rutter

Libretto in English only.

COLLEGIUM RECORDS COLCD 112

[50:40] full-price

“There is a divinity that shapes our ends.”

There in seven words you
have the raison d’être of John Rutter’s Te Deum and
other church music. This album – notwithstanding the title – is an
anthology of devotional carols and hymns in English, composed and
conducted by Rutter from commissions and requests, and a splendid
collection it is, too, with some magnificent musical settings of both
historical and contemporary ecclesiastical texts.

John Rutter first came to my notice back in 1991 in The Handel
Collection (American Gramaphone[sic] AGCD590), a lissom collection
of selections from aforesaid composer’s music; also, one of his
earliest recordings with the City of London Sinfonia. The ensemble was
only formed in 1971 by wunderkind Richard Hickox, with its
members selected from the most outstanding of the younger generation
of musicians, some of whom were already noteworthy soloists or chamber
players. Together, Rutter and the Sinfonia they have consolidated
their reputation as one of London’s finest chamber orchestras
(including, among other accolades, a coveted Gramophone award for a
Fauré Requiem).

The Cambridge Singers, who contribute the vocals on this album, are no
less accomplished for their part (themselves being co-winners on the
Fauré Requiem); this sparkling choir was founded by Rutter in
1981, whose repertoire prominently features, to quote Rutter himself,
“sacred music”. This is not a weighty choir of Handelian proportions,
nor one with what we might describe as “star quality”; rather, these
choristers are a smallish troupe, evoking a very intimate,
homogeneous, clean body of tone, with a distinct sense of
accomplishment.

The immediate sound, so characteristic of Collegium discs, is captured
very amply, the recording being made in the atmospheric Henry Wood
Hall in London. Curiously, the playback volume has been set lower than
usual, which means that one has to push the volume up slightly to
achieve a comfortable level of audibility without straining the ear.
The orchestra has been balanced relatively close to the choir, but the
instrumental accompaniment is never too obtrusive or distracting on
the singing.

It is worth mentioning here, in view of this, that all of the works on
this album were originally intended for performance in the context of
a church service or festival, excepting two hymn arrangements with
brass fanfares, to be accompanied by just organ or piano. Rutter (left) has,
on this recording, rescored the music for small orchestra, imparting a
more vivid colouration to the music which only a full instrumental
palette brings.

John Rutter’s music comes, as the review’s opening Shakespearean line
states, from a background deeply steeped in religion. He was a boy
soprano in the school chapel choir, an organist in teenagehood, and
later director of the choir at Clare College, Cambridge, before
forming and conducting the Cambridge Singers. This album therefore
serves as a musical testimonial to his religious roots as much as his
talent for lyrical melody.

The music is never difficult nor complex; rather, his invention of
melody and harmony is singular – simple, childlike themes with an
occasional twist of time signature or syncopation to keep things
interesting – and carries an elegantly spiritual gravitas, much
in accord with Rutter’s special interest in making his music
accessible to amateur performers as well as young people.

The opening track, the eponymous Te Deum, is Rutter’s choral rendition
of a 5th century ecclesiastical thanksgiving canticle originally in
vulgate Latin (whose opening exhortation “Te Deum laudamus” translates
to “We praise thee, O God”). He includes the text of the Te Deum in
its entirety, albeit in English, lasting an economical (as classical
Te Deums go) seven minutes and a quarter, replete with clashes of
cymbals, rolling of timpani and blasts of brassy chords to accentuate
the joyfulness of worship.

By no means are sacred historic texts the material from which Rutter
draws for his carols. He also musicalizes a doxology, “Go forth into
the world in peace”, from the 1928 Book of Common Prayer, and no less
than three carols come from the Biblical Psalms, O be joyful in the
Lord from Psalm 100; A choral fanfare from Psalm 81, iii, iv; and

The Lord is my light and salvation excerpted from Psalm 27.

In addition, Rutter’s musical offering also includes new melodies for
classic hymns, Be thou my vision and Christ the Lord is risen
again. On As the bridegroom to his chosen, he goes one step further
and adds not just the music, but an additional two lines per stanza to
augment a 13th century text. Rutter himself also contributes an
original number, I believe in springtime, in which his abilities as
a lyricist and composer are simultaneously and abundantly demonstrated.

There is – almost to be expected – one a capella work on this
album, A choral fanfare, set on the third and fourth verses of
Psalm 81. Rutter here employs the voice (or, to put it more
poetically, the larynx) as a mimic of trumpet and horn, with sustained
high-notes in multi-part harmony and ornaments thrown in for good
measure. The result, performed with much panache and brio by
the Singers, is something on which choral reputations are built.

As the bridegroom to his chosen and I believe in springtime

spotlights Rutter’s special talent for melody and lyrics. The musical
line is ravishingly beautiful, the lyrics are deeply spiritual and
profound; perhaps it might be the sectarian content of the music that
prevents these objets d’art from reaching a wider audience, nor
would the overtly devotional nature of the songs appeal to certain
tastes, but ars qua ars, these two numbers surely contain the
full measure of Rutter as the psalmist of our times.

Rutter, it must be said, writes with a sure, distinctive style that
cannot but fail to please. In addition to the Te Deum (and accoutrements),
he has also written settings of the Requiem (Collegium COLCD 103),
Gloria (COLCD 100), Magnificat (COLCD 114), as well as cantatas,
anthems and carols, a veritable trove of delights for those who have
been won over to the consummate musical qualities of this
composer-conductor. Te Deum and other church music is but one
of the many jewels in this plentiful bower.

A final word, then. In this aggressively material day and age,
it is perhaps increasingly rare to find musicians who present, in
their commercial output, so strong an advocacy of personal religious
beliefs. Rutter is, in this respect, an admirable exception to the
rule, but this is not surprising, perhaps, in view of his inspiration
which, after all, one might describe as nothing less than divine.