Magnificat & Falcon

This disc's two large-scale choral works--the Magnificat and The Falcon--show Rutter at his most engaging, thoughtful, and adept. His usual canny sense of tunefulness and rhythmic rightness, flavored with splashes of pop harmony, accomplish his purpose in the Magnificat: to depict Mary's prayer as a celebratory occasion rather than a somber one. The Falcon's image-rich subject matter (the mysteries and symbols of Christianity) and texts, drawn from medieval poetry, the Bible, and Roman liturgy, obviously fired the composer's imagination. Although much of the resulting score--Rutter's first major choral work--draws from the composer's now- familiar bag of melodic/harmonic/rhythmic tools, it is effectively colored with the hues and shadings of ancient compositional devices. The performances, by Rutter's own, first-class Cambridge Singers, are exemplary, and the sound lends ideal clarity and naturalness to voices and instruments. --David Vernier