SACDs - Finnissy

In the run-up to Advent and Christmas, the Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge under Andrew Nethsingha presents a joyous celebration of music for the festive season. The disc includes original works by John Rutter, Sir Richard Rodney Bennett, Elizabeth Poston, and Kenneth Leighton. These are complemented by arrangements of popular songs, and a selection of congregational hymns, all displaying strong ties to the Advent and Christmas seasons.

This disc was recorded in the College Chapel in full surround-sound, which means that it not only sounds spectacular, but recreates to a spectacular degree the experience of listening to the Choir perform in the Chapel.

The Choir of St John’s College, established in the 1670s, is today one of the finest college choirs in the world, known and loved by millions for its recordings, broadcasts, and concert tours.

Responses to Ives was conceived in 2003 by pianist Heather O'Donnell as a way to acknowledge the 50th anniversary of Charles Ives's death (May 19, 2004). She approached composers spanning a generation, known to have strong affinities for Ives and asked them to write a ‘musical reflection’ on the presence of Ives in their lives and work. O'Donnell intersperses short, and often less known, works of Ives with the contemporary composers' "responses", all of which are first recordings. The "responses" could not be more varied from each other -- from introspective to virtuostic to meditative to extended techniques. The set was premièred at the MaerzMusik Festival in Berlin in 2004 in the midst of a twelve hour extravaganza of Ives. In the months following repeat performances took place in South Africa, China, the Czech Republic, Germany and the U.S.

Includes the first recording of Ives' London Bridge is Falling Down!

Original high-resolution DSD recording.