London Voices, William Saunders & Ben Parry - Jonathan Rutherford: The Wilderness and the Solitary Place (2023)

The Wilderness and the Solitary Place is an album of world-premiere recordings in which Ben Parry conducts London Voices and organist William Saunders in choral music by British composer Jonathan Rutherford. Following the release of I Slept and Dreamed that Life Was Beauty, these exceptional musicians reunite to perform Rutherford’s sensitive settings of sacred and secular texts. Three Advent carols inspired by Isaiah include one translated into verse by Jennifer Thorn and another derived from the medieval Coventry Mystery Play. From Rutherford’s opera, The Star-Child, based on two Oscar Wilde stories, we hear his Magnificat & Nunc Dimittis and Pilgrim’s Song – in turn based on Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress. Rejoice! Rejoice! is a Christmas anthem inspired by Beatrix Potter’s The Tailor of Gloucester, and In the Bleak Midwinter is a new setting of Christina Rossetti’s timeless poetry. The recording culminates in Rutherford’s meditative and profoundly beautiful Good Friday Music (Seven Last Words).

Tracklist
01. 3 Advent Carols "Isaiah": No. 1, Rejoice, You Barren Land
02. 3 Advent Carols "Isaiah": No. 2, The Sofferent Thatte Seeth Evere Seycrette
03. 3 Advent Carols "Isaiah": No. 3, The Wilderness and the Solitary Place
04. The Star-Child: Magnificat - Nunc dimittis
05. The Star-Child: Pilgrim's Song
06. Rejoice! Rejoice!
07. In the Bleak Midwinter
08. Blessed Is the Man Who Finds Wisdom
09. For Behold, I Create New Heavens and a New Earth
10. Good Friday Music: I. The First Word
11. Good Friday Music: II. The Second Word
12. Good Friday Music: III. The Third Word
13. Good Friday Music: IV. The Fourth Word
14. Good Friday Music: V. The Fifth Word
15. Good Friday Music: VI. The Sixth Word
16. Good Friday Music: VII. The Seventh Word