University Choir & The 24

Celebrate the festive season with this joyous selection of choral works by modern British composers. John Rutter’s Gloria was commissioned by the American choral conductor Mel Olson, marking the composer’s first engagement in the US. The work contains many of Rutter’s trademark qualities, with its ‘exquisitely balanced vocal writing’ and ‘melting harmonies’ (Gramophone). While Rutter travelled to the US to conduct the premiere of his Gloria in 1974, Britten was making his way back on a sea voyage from the US to England when he composed his ever-popular A Ceremony of Carols. Written for upper voices and harp, Britten later arranged the work for full choir, as featured in this performance. The work comprises a captivating collection of carols and hymns from the late Middle Ages, with music that is at times melancholic and haunting and at others hopeful and exuberant. The programme also includes Cecilia McDowall’s Christmas cantata, Christus Natus Est, which reworks familiar melodies from five ancient carols, and Vaughan Williams’ triumphant anthem O Clap Your Hands.

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