When this release appeared in late 2015, it shot up the British classical charts and made strong inroads in the U.S. as well. The reason was strong anticipation: the major work on the album, The Gift of Life: Six Canticles of Creation, was Rutter's first extended choral work in a decade. Rutter has mostly specialized in short, often a cappella, works suitable for ordinary choirs, but here he writes not just a longer piece but one whose individual parts, most of them at seven or eight minutes, are longer than his usual ...
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When this release appeared in late 2015, it shot up the British classical charts and made strong inroads in the U.S. as well. The reason was strong anticipation: the major work on the album, The Gift of Life: Six Canticles of Creation, was Rutter's first extended choral work in a decade. Rutter has mostly specialized in short, often a cappella, works suitable for ordinary choirs, but here he writes not just a longer piece but one whose individual parts, most of them at seven or eight minutes, are longer than his usual pieces. And they're accompanied by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Rutter himself. All the usual virtues of Rutter's music and recordings are here. He is an extremely adept selector of texts, with The Gift of Life moving from the Book of Common Prayer to New England hymnody to Rutter's own poetry, and making it seem effortlessly of a piece. Rutter puts the texts in terms of there being no standard observance of life-giving to correspond to the Requiem mass (which he...
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