John Rutter - Christmas Night: Carols of the Nativity (Remastered 2020)

Christmas Night, a favourite early album by The Cambridge Singers and the City of London Sinfonia, has been remastered and is being re-released on Friday 6th November 2020. Christmas Night was originally released in 1987. Now, following an extended period at home during the Coronavirus pandemic, John Rutter has revisited his recording oeuvre and remastered several of his early albums using digital sound restoration.

John Rutter writes:

“This has always been my favourite among the Christmas albums I have devised and conducted, but digital sound restoration techniques have made huge advances in the years since it was recorded and it was time to give it a spring-clean. In remastering it, it has been possible to bring the sound of the choir and the orchestra to life, and I have been able to enjoy it anew. The Cambridge Singers in 1987 were at the top of their game, and the choir list includes at least two singers who are now internationally renowned as soloists. We hope you will enjoy this classic recording in its newly restored form.”

The theme of this album is the birth of Christ, reflected in the words and music of 22 carols spanning more than six centuries. Some of these carols have long been widely known and loved; others have become so thanks to the annual Christmas Eve Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at King’s College, Cambridge. All of them focus on the central event of the Christmas story – the birth at Bethlehem – and on the characters in that story: the angels, the shepherds, the wise men, and the mother with her child.