At least six recordings of Rutter’s Gloria (1974) are available, as well as several separate combinations of his equally brilliant Te Deum (1988) and Magnificat (1990), but for the first time, this spectacular issue features all three works performed by the distinguished Choirs of St Albans Cathedral.

C’est un phénomène. Il faut donc en parler. Parallèlement au culte voué à Arvo Pärt, une autre voie dans la musique chorale de notre temps recueille beaucoup d’assentiment. Il s’agit de la musique de John Rutter (né en 1945). Loin de toutes les recherches plus ou moins alambiquées sur l’expression vocale dans la musique contemporaine, Rutter est parti d’une base populaire, celle des hymnes choraux anglais. Il est un continuateur d’Elgar, de Holst, de Vaughan Williams et de tous les compositeurs plus spécialisés. Sa musique, d’exécution gratifiante, a eu beaucoup de succès auprès de nombreux choeurs. Si vous désirez savoir ce que cela donne, voici trois partitions emblématiques, bien défendues et offertes à bas prix. Aujourd’hui, c’est une autre voie, celle de la subtilité harmonique post-Britten et Poulenc, cultivée par Eric Whitacre et ses émules, qui est à la mode. © 2012 Le Devoir

No existe una única historia de la música clásica, sino varias; está la historia de los grandes autores, los grandes nombres que brillan e irradian esplendor con sólo nombrarlos, y al costado o quizá escondida detrás, la de los compositores que no serán nunca tan esplendorosos pero que cumplen con creces al ofrecer obras que hacen felices a intérpretes y oyentes. El nombre del británico John Rutter (1945) no es conocido por aquí, pero difícil será encontrar en toda Gran Bretaña a un corista profesional o amateur que no haya cantado sus obras y hable de ellas en tono laudatorio. Tres obras de su importante catálogo coral religioso vienen aquí en las mejores condiciones posibles, y en todas se ve el profundo conocimiento de la voz cantada y de la centenaria tradición coral inglesa, alimentada en catedrales e iglesias. ¿Quedará Rutter como un gran compositor? No lo sé ni nos debe importar. Pero mientras, atrévanse a disfrutar de una obra como el Gloria, de 1974, con ese grupo de metales que lo solemnizan o de la alegría que desprende el Magnificat (1990), donde entrevera el texto en latín con una poesía del XV dedicada a la Virgen y una oración en latín. Y el programa lo cierra un Te Deum. No será vanguardista, pero es buena música.

The Gloria is given a deft performance that’s a bit too small and careful to rival Rutter’s own. But the delightful Magnificat is as good as any. Cleobury (EMI) did it well but this is better; lighter, brighter, and more sumptuously recorded. The ‘Esurientes’, which might be the loveliest Rutter interlude of all, is sung gorgeously by soprano Elizabeth Cragg. (Cleobury used a choirboy, with predictably pale results.) Here the work is heard in the composer’s scaled-down version for choir, organ, and chamber orchestra. If the jacket hadn’t mentioned it, I wouldn’t have noticed. (Or cared, for that matter.) The 8-minute Te Deum also goes well. Here’s hoping these folks get a crack at Rutter’s Requiem with the same engineering crew in tow. English and Latin texts are supplied. For the Magnificat, exit Cleobury and enter Lucas

John Rutter’s effective choral classics in scrupulous, sparkling performances

Although best known for his many carols and anthems, John Rutter is equally adept at handling music on a larger canvas. His reflective Requiem (now 25 years old) is an established classic. Much the same can be said of the evergreen 1974 setting of the Gloria, Rutter’s first major overseas commission. Its incisive, punchy, syncopated brass opening lingers memorably, setting the scene for some spectacular, polished and vibrant singing. The notoriously taxing finale is accomplished without a wobble, resulting in a deeply satisfying performance.

This recording has been warmly received on Musicweb by Nick Barnard (in CD form) and Brian Wilson (download). Naxos already have in their catalogue excellent versions of Rutter’s Mass of the Children and his beautiful Requiem. Now they add this collection of significant choral works. Competition is fierce in the shape of the composer’s own recordings of the Gloria and of the Magnificat—he’s also recorded the Te Deum on a disc of his shorter choral works. In addition there’s a very fine Hyperion disc by Polyphony and Stephen Layton, which includes the Gloria. However, this newcomer can more than hold up its head in this company. It also enjoys a point of differentiation over both the Rutter and Layton recordings, both of which use mixed adult choirs whereas this Naxos CD allows us to hear boy and girl trebles as well as male altos; that gives a nice edge to the choral sound.

The composer himself has written the booklet note and it’s a good one—he writes here at slightly greater length than he usually does for his own Collegium label. Writing of the Gloria he makes a very interesting point. The piece was Rutter’s first major overseas commission and the call came from an American choral director, the late Mel Olson. Mr Olson was very specific in his commissioning requirements and even came over to meet Rutter in the UK to discuss the proposed piece. Rutter is generous in talking of Olson’s contribution not just to the creative process around this work but also in a way that clearly influenced Rutter’s future output: “Much of the credit must go to Mel Olson…because, in telling me what he was looking for in a new choral work, he was telling me what thousands of other choral directors were looking for too.”

That seems to me to make two key points about John Rutter’s music and about the success that it’s enjoyed over the years. Firstly, he writes music that people want to perform and to hear. Secondly, his music, though enjoyable to perform is not always as easy as it sounds: it challenges the performers without putting insuperable obstacles in their path. I sang in the Gloria some years ago: it was great fun and highly effective but it also contains several traps for the unwary, especially in the third movement. Likewise the opening pages of the Requiem are testing. And only recently I spoke with a friend of mine who has several decades of choral experience, including a stint in the Ambrosian Singers. He related that the choir with which he currently sings, which is directed by one of the UK’s well-known chorus masters, had just performed the Magnificat and he admitted that they had found some passages very tricky. So while John Rutter’s music may be engaging it should never be underestimated.

The present performances are splendidly assured and delivered with great enthusiasm. The Gloria and Te Deum are both scored for SATB chorus wimore....

A few years ago, on a nasty night, Buffalo’s Ars Nova Musicians performed Rutter’s 40-minute-long Magnificat at St Joseph’s Cathedral and when it ended, a woman in front of me turned around. “Well,” she said, “that was sure worth coming out here for.” With his fanfares, timpani, soaring vocals and jingly excitement, Rutter does give you your money’s worth. …it’s a lot of fun—a beaming, bright-timbred expression of faith. The Choirs of St Albans Cathedral, operating out of an old Benedictine abbey dissolved by Henry VIII, sing the music with light-hearted grace.

Not surprisingly—and most certainly not without merit—Naxos and Classicsonline are making a feature of this recording. I know that there are some church-music traditionalists who dislike Rutter’s music, but I’m not among them. Certainly he gives a lift to the music, but his settings are in a direct line of descent from those of his predecessors in a way that ad hoc guitar strumming at Mass can never be. A cathedral or collegiate choir like that of St Alban’s who perform here could use these three settings at the principal Sunday services alongside plainsong or renaissance polyphony for the other items without a sense of dichotomy. Yes, some part of the Gloria are (gloriously) brash but there are some really wonderful quiet and contemplative moments, too, especially in the Magnificat.

There are several fine recordings in the catalogue, not least that of Gloria, Te Deum and shorter works on Hyperion CDA67259. Classicsonline already offer Rutter’s own recording of the Gloria on his own Collegium label but the new recording, alert to all aspects of Rutter’s music, can look these predecessors in the eye. Strongly recommended: any recording that could keep me listening intently while the neighbours noisily power-hosed their patio for most of its duration must be beyond praise.

John Rutter’s Gloria has been enormously—and justifiably—popular ever since its premiere in the now-ancient year 1974 (it was commissioned by the Voices of Mel Olson, Omaha, Nebraska, and conducted by the composer on his first visit to the U.S.) and following its subsequent recording by Rutter and his Cambridge Singers 10 years later in the early days of the CD. Rutter supplies very interesting information regarding the origin and history of this and the program’s other works in the disc’s liner notes.

Modern composers do not work only in instrumental forms, of course. John Rutter’s Gloria has been around for quite a while by modern standards—it dates to 1974—and it is an impressive work, celebratory and dramatic and altogether joyful. Rutter’s Te Deum (1988) is forthright and joyous as well, while his 1990 Magnificat (which contain a movement called “Of a Rose, a Lovely Rose” amid the Latin ones) comes across as genuinely festive. The new Naxos CD of these pieces has bright, attractive sound that complements the music quite well; the disc shows that even overtly religious music is being handled in some new and attractively surprising ways by some modern composers.