| The Choir
of King's College, Cambridge is the most internationally famous of the
English traditional choirs of men and boys.
The 16 trebles
are members of King's College School where they wear Eton suits and top
hats. The adult members of the choir are full-time undergraduates (14
choral scholars and 2 organ scholars).
The rise to
international fame for Kings College Choir started in the 30s with
numerous recordings under the directorship of Boris Ord. Sir David
Willcocks took over
in the late fifties and is perhaps the
most famous of their directors. Under his leadership the yearly
'Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols' became an international event and
has since been screened on television as 'Carols from Kings'.
Nearly all their recordings since David Willcocks have been on the EMI
label and have been easily obtainable outside of the UK and this has
also helped the international recognition of Kings.
After
Willcocks the directorship was passed on to Philip Ledger and thence to
Stephen Cleobury their current director. Throughout this time while
other choirs have expanded their repertoire to include folk music or
even 'popular' music, Kings has largely stuck to the standard classical
repertoire. Under Stephen Cleobury the emphasis has been placed on
commissioning new works. Recent discs have included Vivaldi’s
Gloria, Dixit Dominus and Magnificat, Handel’s Coronation
Anthems, Bach’s Magnificat with the Academy of Ancient Music,
Rachmaninov’s Vespers (which won the first ever Classical
Brit Award), Scarlatti’s Stabat Mater, and a live recording
of A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols.
At the time of
writing this (August 2004) a CD by The Boys of Kings College Choir is
about to be released. This last recording deserves some comment since I
am not aware of any other recordings by 'The Boys'. The track listing
indicates a few solos and duets are to be expected and I suspect this
will be a hit for 'treble' music lovers. Lets hope it is, as maybe in
the future we will have some recordings of more popular songs like
those recorded by The Boys of St Paul's Cathedral in the early
eighties.
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