New Release: ‘A Banquet of Voices’

Announcing A Banquet of Voices, a newly-remastered album celebrating music written for multiple choirs, due to be released on Friday 11th September 2020.

The album, recorded in 1993 by the Cambridge Singers and remastered by John during the Coronavirus pandemic, is an exploration of some of the great wealth of choral music written for up to 40 voice parts. It was withdrawn from the Collegium Records catalogue some time after its release in 1994 because of musicological doubt over a Gregorian chant, long since resolved. This is a re-release of the classic Cambridge Singers recording, using modern digital sound restoration, allowing the music to be heard in its full sonic splendour.

A Banquet of Voices is a splendid collection spanning more than 400 years featuring a mix of choral favourites – including Tallis’s 40-part motet Spem in alium, Allegri’s Miserere mei, Deus, Bach’s double-choir motet Singet dem Herrn – and rarer polychoral pieces by Guerrero, Scheidt and Philips.

John Rutter and the Cambridge Singers are joined by Wayne Marshall (chamber organ), Helen Gough (baroque cello) and William Hunt (violone). 

The album is available to pre-order, and will also be available to stream across all digital platforms from 11th September.

The full track list for the album is as follows:

  • Duo Seraphim (Francisco Guerrero)
  • Miserere mei, Deus (Gregorio Allegri)
  • Crucifixus (Antonio Caldara)
  • Surrexit Pastor bonus (Samuel Scheidt)
  • Spem in alium nunquam habui (Thomas Tallis)
  • Ave Regina caelorum (Peter Philips) 
  • Fest- und Gedenksprüche (Johannes Brahms) 
  • Mitten wir im Leben sind (Felix Mendelssohn)
  • Heilig (Felix Mendelssohn) 
  • Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied (J.S. Bach)