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What Sweeter Music: Sir John Rutter on the carols and music of King's College Cambridge
12/17/2025
What Sweeter Music: Sir John Rutter on the carols and music of King's College Cambridge
Imagine aspiring to just visit the space that created your favourite music. Now imagine you would spend your life composing for that space. This is the life story of Sir John Rutter; a world treasure, and a composer most treasured by King's College Cambridge. Join Dr Stephen Cherry and Sir John Rutter as they take you on a walking tour of the sound that "never leaves" John's head; the sound of King's College Chapel. You'll learn how the space influences John's writing practices, how his bedside table is overflowing with poetry, and you'll get a fairly comprehensive history of recorded music in the chapel, to which John has contributed many times. King's College Choirs' latest album, All the Stars Looked Down is out now. It sees the choir performing with Britten Sinfonia, and includes beautiful orchestral arrangements of Christmas carols by Sir John Rutter alongside a selection of both well-loved and lesser-known carols by the great choral composers who have influenced Rutter, including Sir Philip Ledger, Sir David Willcocks and Ralph Vaughan Williams. The album’s title track, John Rutter’s All the Stars Looked Down, is dedicated to the late Sir Stephen Cleobury, whose enormous contribution to the Christmas choral legacy is also celebrated on the album.
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