Easter 2009 sees the release of a major new disc on Collegium from
John Rutter, the Cambridge Singers and La Nuova Musica,
featuring a collection of outstanding motets from the canon of
European sacred choral repertoire.

Focusing on the extraordinary body of choral music produced for
liturgical use during the Renaissance and Baroque periods, The
Sacred Flame explores the rich and varied ways in which European
composers responded to sacred texts. Delving into a treasure-trove of
music from cultural centres as diverse as Amsterdam, Antwerp,
Leipzig, Milan, Rome, and Venice, this collection features familiar
classics by Gabrieli,Monteverdi, Palestrina and Schütz, as well as less
widely-known masterpieces by Bach, Buxtehude, Hassler and
Sweelinck. All are performed in stunning new recordings by the
Cambridge Singers at their sensuous and virtuosic best, joined here
for the first time on disc by the instrumentalists of La Nuova Musica,
rapidly establishing areputation as one of the UK’s most exciting
early music ensembles.

All repertoire featured on The Sacred Flame is drawn from the
enormously popular European Sacred Music collection edited by
John Rutter for the Oxford University Press Oxford Choral Classics
series.

Recorded in the unparalleled acoustic of the Great Hall at University
College School in London, and produced and engineered by awardwinning
producer Simon Eadon, the performances of these muchloved
works heard on this disc are set to become definitive.

“These singers of JohnRutter's choir are so
expert, so very good at everything they do…
They shade and shape the phrases beautifully”
Gramophone