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
from within the womb and commands the cherry trees to bow down for
so she can pick from them) and
"Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day,"
as well as a very fine Italian
called
"Once, As I Remember"
and a
Renaissance
piece by
Samuel Scheidt
"O Little One Sweet."
And
's tunes are, typically, ripe and fulsome and gushing in that idiosyncratically British
neo-romantic
way. Highly recommended. ~ Rick Anderson