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Retrospectively the disc's final item, Ligeti's Luxaeterna, dominates the recital. Not only does it make an indelible impression, but it also casts its light over the entire programme and style... — Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 More…

Release Date: 1st Nov 1999
Catalogue No: COLCD125
Label: Collegium

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Gregorian Chant: Lumen

Choir of Clare College Cambridge
Timothy Brown

Harris, W: Bring us, O Lord God

Choir of Clare College Cambridge
Timothy Brown

Rautavaara: Ehtoohymni (Evening hymn)

Choir of Clare College Cambridge
Timothy Brown

Rachmaninoff: Nunc Dimittis

Choir of Clare College Cambridge
Timothy Brown

Byrd: O Lux beata Trinitas

Choir of Clare College Cambridge
Timothy Brown

Hildegard: O coruscans lux stellarum

Choir of Clare College Cambridge
Timothy Brown

Tallis: O nata lux de lumine

Choir of Clare College Cambridge
Timothy Brown

Tallis: Te lucis ante terminum

Choir of Clare College Cambridge
Timothy Brown

Rutter: Hymn to the Creator of Light

Choir of Clare College Cambridge
Timothy Brown

Wood, C: Hail, gladdening Light

Choir of Clare College Cambridge
Timothy Brown

White, Robert: Christe qui lux es et dies

Choir of Clare College Cambridge
Timothy Brown

Holst: Nunc dimittis, H127

Choir of Clare College Cambridge
Timothy Brown

Palestrina: Christe, qui lux es et dies

Choir of Clare College Cambridge
Timothy Brown

Josquin: Nunc Dimittis

Choir of Clare College Cambridge
Timothy Brown

Grechaninov: Svyétye tíkhii (Hail, gladdening Light)

Choir of Clare College Cambridge
Timothy Brown

Tchaikovsky: Svyétye tíkhii (Hail, gladdening Light)

Choir of Clare College Cambridge
Timothy Brown

Palestrina: Lucis Creator optime

Choir of Clare College Cambridge
Timothy Brown

Ligeti: Lux aeterna

Choir of Clare College Cambridge
Timothy Brown

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About

This rich programme, exploring the theme of light, was recorded in the magnificent acoustic of the Lady Chapel of Ely Cathedral. It marks the debut on the Collegium label of Timothy Brown and the Choir of Clare College, Cambridge and features a rare recording of Ligeti's Lux Aeterna. "The quality of choral tone here is remarkable ? a wondrous record." - Gramophone

"?one of the most accomplished choral discs of the year." - Independent on Sunday

"This disc is a first-rate contribution to unaccompanied choral singing at its best and can be highly recommended." - MusicWeb International

"The choir sings with precise diction and radiant tone. This is a beautifully modulated journey?" - Sunday Times

"Perfect late-night listening." - Financial Times

Reviews

2010

Retrospectively the disc's final item, Ligeti's Luxaeterna, dominates the recital. Not only does it make an indelible impression, but it also casts its light over the entire programme and style of singing.
To a listener who has not heard it before (a slightly smaller category than might be thought, as the piece was used in the film 2001: A SpaceOdyssey) it may even come as the light on the road to Damascus, a blinding revelation of unknown choral sonorities. An extraordinary sound–world is opening up, with long, finely ruled streams of light, a spectrum of colours wide as the distance from heaven to earth, and all mingling eventually within the cavern of a great bell. The challenge to singers (even when assisted by the reverberance of Ely Cathedral's Lady Chapel) is formidable indeed, and these young voices (with lungs and ears involved also) do marvellously well. And so they do throughout. The quality of choral tone here is remarkable: no thready sopranos, none of those bone–dry basses, but a sound that, though strictly disciplined in the matter of vibrato, is still fresh and natural. They achieve wonders of crescendo, as in William Harris's Bring us, O LordGod, and their opening chords (in Tallis's O natalux for instance) are as if cut by the sharpest slicer ever made. Even so, this smooth, flawless beauty of sound is, in some contexts, like the modern beauty of the face of a heroine in some televised piece of period–drama. Josquin Desprez's Nuncdimittis is an example: the singing is extremely beautiful, but conceptually (and not just in the women's voices) seems anachronistic. It's as though they have worked on their programme with the precept 'All choral music aspires to the condition of Ligeti'. A wondrous record, all the same.

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