Following the success of their 2023 digital EP, Rutter Orchestral Carols, the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge, releases a new album for Christmas 2025, featuring a selection of arrangements and original works for choir and orchestra.
Under the direction of Daniel Hyde and recorded in the beloved Chapel of King’s College Cambridge, All the Stars Looked Down sees the choir performing with Britten Sinfonia.
The album includes beautiful orchestral arrangements of Christmas carols by Sir John Rutter alongside a selection of both well-loved and lesser-known carols by the great choral composers who have influenced Rutter, including Sir Philip Ledger, Sir David Willcocks and Ralph Vaughan Williams.
The album’s title track, John Rutter’s All the Stars Looked Down, is dedicated to the late Sir Stephen Cleobury, whose enormous contribution to the Christmas choral legacy is also celebrated on this album.
“The music on this album is chosen to reflect the extraordinary talents and the effortless musical modesty of John Rutter in this his 80th birthday year.” said Daniel
As an early mentor to John, David Willcocks is heard on the album in three of his best known congregational carol arrangements; usually sung each year by over a thousand people packed into the chapel at the Christmas Eve Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, they are heard here in their arrangements for choir with brass and organ.
All the Stars Looked Down will be available to buy, stream and download from 21 November.