Rutter: Pie Jesu (from Requiem)

This programme contains a representative collection of important works written between 1901 and 2000. This period is sometimes thought of as the era of ‘modern’ music, when composers sought to break free from the Romantic styles of the 19th century by experimenting with daring new harmonies and forms, but much of the music written after 1900 still harked back to the familiar style of the past. The first CD opens with composers who still wrote in the Romantic style, including Rachmaninov, Prokofiev, Khachaturian, Holst and Elgar, and we also hear part of the slow movement of the most successful concerto written during the 20th century, the Concierto de Aranjuez by Rodrigo. Then come the early innovators who broke new ground like the Second Viennese School of Webern, Berg and Schoenberg, as well as others who continued to use the more traditional methods of composition but who wrote in a more advanced style such as Stravinsky and Bartók. These are followed by later composers who wrote in a wide range of so-called ‘modern’ styles including Takemitsu, Tavener and Adès. The large and prolific school of American composers active during the 20th century is represented by some extremely popular pieces like Barber’s Adagio for Strings, Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man, as well as more adventurous works by Ives, Reich and Adams. The set also includes extracts from choral pieces by Boulez, Pärt, Tavener, Rutter and Jenkins, and ends with one of the 20th century’s most successful choral works, Orff’s Carmina Burana.

No composer alive today more completely embodies the Anglo-Saxon choral tradition than John Rutter, whose compositions and arrangements have enjoyed endless success around the world.

These illuminating performances are licenced from John Rutter’s own Collegium label, taken from albums many of which have sold in six-figure numbers over the years. The performances can hardly be bettered, directed by John Rutter with his hand-picked choir, recorded in the iridescent acoustic of the Chapter House in Ely Cathedral.

This 2-CD set contains an extremely wide range of music for boys' choirs, from the early polyphony of Allegri's Miserere to the present-day popular songs of Prince and Enya. Also included are some interesting works by some great 20th-century composers such as Copland, Britten and Ned Rorem.

The featured choirs are some of the world's most notable boys' choirs, from the Vienna Boys' Choir and the American Boychoir to, perhaps the best-known of them all, the Choir of King's College, Cambridge. The most recent of the choirs here is Libera, formed by their conductor, Robert Prizeman, from school boys from around south London.

So, for those who already find the freshness and youthfulness of boys' voices uniquely appealing here is the perfect compilation. For those who have yet to make the discovery this set should prove a delightful musical journey.

There is surely no more quintessentially English sound than that of the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge, its unaccompanied voices – evocative of immemorial sandstone, of cool cloisters, of evensong in church, chapel and cathedral – serene in the music of Shakespeare’s contemporaries Byrd and Gibbons, ethereal in Delius heard of a summer’s night across the Backs of the River Cam.

No less iconic is the chapel that lends its unique acoustic to that sound. One of the glories of the English perpendicular style of architecture, it was eventually completed in 1547, a little over a century after the founding of the college itself by Henry VI.

This collection opens and closes with coronation music: Zadok the Priest was written for the crowning of George II in 1727, I was glad for that of Edward VII in 1902. Both were so successful that they have been sung at every coronation since their premières. Parry’s ‘processional anthem’ is heard here in its full panoply of extra brass and shouted Vivats, the choir of King’s choir providing the semi-chorus in the exquisite interlude ‘O pray for the peace of Jerusalem’.

In between are motets ancient and modern – from the miniature If ye love me and the architectural splendour of the 40-part Spem in alium to William Harris’s dramatic double-choir Spenser setting Faire is the Heaven; well-known psalms sung to Anglican chant; and favourite hymns, notably All people that on earth do dwell, arranged ceremonially for another coronation, that of Elizabeth II.

As well as national rejoicing there is solemn remembrance. Come ye sons of art away is Purcell’s 1694 birthday ode for Queen Mary, Thou knowest, Lord part of the music he wrote for her funeral just nine months later. John Ireland’s Greater love hath no man is often heard on Remembrance Sunday; Sir John Tavener’s Song for Athene made a powerful impression at the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales; while John Rutter’s small-scale, personal Requiem touched a wider public following the attacks of 11 September 2001. But ‘Nimrod’ above all epitomises music of national remembrance. Here a choral setting of it, Lux aeterna, represents our ‘Shakespeare of music’, Edward Elgar.

The definitive sound of British Choral music will be sure to resonate through the Nation this forthcoming May bank holiday. This stunning 2CD compilation is filled with some of the most evocative and iconic British music ever composed.

Drawn from the catalogues of Decca Classics, Deutsche Grammophon and Decca Records, this TV advertised compilation includes performances from a variety of the world's leading choirs and ensembles: Westminster Abbey Choir, Christ Church Cathedral Choir under Stephen Darlington, New College Choir under Edward Higginbottom, and with such orchestras as the London Symphony Orchestra and Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Star performances come from Kiri Te Kanawa, All Angels, and many more.