You'll know right away if this disc, Carols from Clare with John Rutter directing the Clare College Singers and Orchestra, is the disc for you. If flutes in thirds doubled by the celesta remind you of snowflakes, if tremolo strings and whistling clarinets remind you of winter winds, if big-hearted, full-throated choristers and all-stops-out organs remind you of Christmas, then this is the disc for you. If robust arrangements of traditional European carols make your bell ring, if vigorous performances by muscular English choruses make your heart sing, if emotional interpretations of sentimental English songs are your kind of thing, then this is the disc for you. Before English conductor and composer John Rutter hit on the idea of his chorus and orchestra performing his own music on his own label, he and his chorus and orchestra performed other people's music on other people's labels. This disc is perhaps not as sweet as his later recordings with his Cambridge Singers for his Collegium label and might therefore make a more appropriate introduction to his exuberant style of music-making. EMI's late-'60s stereo sound is exemplary in every dimension: height, breadth, and depth.
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