Martin, Hugh: Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

No living composer has come to be more closely associated with Christmas than John Rutter: for more than thirty years, his carols and other seasonal choral music have been an indispensable feature of Christmas celebrations worldwide. Inspired by the success of his much-loved annual Christmas concerts at the Royal Albert Hall, this major new recording, for release in November 2008, features première recordings of over a dozen brand new compositions and arrangements for Christmas by John Rutter, together with his own personal selection of seasonal choral and orchestral favourites by other composers. Recorded in the splendid setting of London’s Cadogan Hall, this is the first all-new Christmas release from Rutter’s celebrated Cambridge Singers for 20 years, and the first ever to feature the glorious sound of full symphony orchestra and organ.

Described by Choir & Organ as ‘a tremendous choir, with superb technique and an immense, expressive range’, Orphei Drängar give proof of its versatility in a highly varied programme which still manages to stay within the theme of Christmas: original settings and new arrangements of Swedish folk songs and Christmas classics, English carols and Broadway songs – with Stille Nacht, a Russian hymn in praise of the Holy Virgin and Eric Whitacre’s widely admired Lux aurumque.