Magnificat

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 subjectmatter (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 choralwork--draws from the composer's now- familiar bag of melodic/harmonic/rhythmictools, 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.