Rutter: Three Musical Fables

 

Even though only one of these Three Musical Fables is related to Christmas, my family listened to this recording every Yuletide season.

Brother Heinrich's Christmas is an endearing tale surrounding a monk and his donkey Sigismund, an animal who sings in the monastery choir. In essence, this is a creation story revolving around the Christmas carol 'In Dulci Jubilo', a tune interweaved into the story beautifully. I find the tale gently humorous, and my wife's heart melts at each retelling.

The Reluctant Dragon is an extremely silly story with some wonderful songs from The King's Singers penned by John Rutter, while The Wind in the Willows is the classic tale of Mr. Toad from Graham Greene.

I have been a long-life lover of Let's Begin Again and The Banquet Fugue long before I knew these short 'radio cantatas' existed. Add to that The Very Best Time of Year, and the holiday sappiness of John Rutter's song writing gets me every time. These are narrated affairs, storytelling for the young ones, but the music and voice acting can be enjoyed by anyone.

A review from 2019

This recording of Three Musical Fables is a delightfully charming presentation of spoken and sung storytelling of three children’s stories: Wind in the Willows, Brother Heinrich’s Christmas, and The Reluctant Dragon. The presentations themselves are akin to an old-fashioned Christmas radio play complete with narrator and orchestral underscorings, characters portrayed in sung and spoken roles, and interspersed choral offerings. John Rutter’s music is equally old-fashioned, his expertise in mid-tempo ballads (the standouts that have held the passage of time are Let’s Begin Again, Banquet Fugue, and Home is a Special Kind of Feeling) with late-70’s harmonies and soft drums is at the fore, but he mixes it up with tongue-in-cheek jazz settings and cutsy solos and characters.

The all-male vocal group, The King’s Singers, widely reputed through their Medieval and Renaissance vocal music recordings and performances since the 60’s, has always balanced serious historical musical compositions with their own brand of cheeky humour and have never been afraid to tackle modern or popular music into their repertoire, so their performances of these children’s cantatas is particularly apt. Their characterizations are certainly humour-filled for the young ones, but gently musical throughout for those who appreciate fine musicianship. Without the visualization of a book or video, I’m not sure who this production is meant for in today’s world, but it is an outstanding musical performance, very entertaining and humourous storytelling for all ages and families, and is an easy recommendation for music lovers and children with aural-focus abilities.

As to the works themselves, The Reluctant Dragon is the most satisfying for a good balance of narration, singing, and laughs. Brother Heinrich’s Christmas is a more sensitive story describing the creation of the carol “Good Christian Men Rejoice” that tugs at the heartstrings, however, it is far more narration heavy with the occasional outburst of “In dulci jubilo” from The Cambridge Singers. Outside of The Wind in the Willows being a childhood classic, it doesn’t capture the same magic of Reluctant Dragon for humour or inspired music making, but it is a gentle tale that should be familiar to literate fans and a great putting together of the classic story. The English narrators (both broadcasting names from decades ago) are perfectly characterful in their voicings of the characters, but not overdoing the voices and letting the King’s Singers take the spotlight.

The City of London Sinfonia under John Rutter along with the late Sir Richard Hickox carry the music very well here and are perfectly colourful in Rutter’s old-fashioned settings. While this Collegium Records release is a 2003 reissue of an album from the early 90's, the performances itself comes from the early to mid 80’s and still hold up well today - all of the narrations are clear to the listener and The King’s Singers’ texts are all perfectly understandable. Thankfully, Collegium's reissue includes all of the texts in the liner notes and divides the three cantata's into broken-down tracks, a great improvement over the textless, single-track cantatas on the original release .

For lovers of children’s Christmas stories, here set to music by John Rutter with performances by The King’s Singers, this recording comes Highly Recommended to ease the burden of the holidays with quality musicianship and family-friendly humour.

 

 

 

Works
The Reluctant Dragon (21.27)
Brother Heinrich's Christmas (19.17)
The Wind in the Willows (28.20)

Soloists
Brian Kay, narrator
Richard Baker, narrator

Performers
King's Singers
Cambridge Singers (Heinrich)
City of London Sinfonia
Richard Hickox, conductor
John Rutter, conductor (Heinrich)

Label: Collegium
Year: 1983; 2003
Total Timing:69.24

 

 

 

 

It shouldn't come as any surprise that this trio of fables with music is a winner for this listener. My children love it, my wife loves it (except maybe for some of the potty humor in Dragon), and I love them loving it.

Thank you Sir John!