A musical Christmas would be almost unthinkable without a fresh contribution from John Rutter, either as composer, arranger or editor. For the millennium yuletide festivities Rutter has edited, with all his customary skill and attention to detail, a new collection of 16 Christmas motets, which provides a useful appendix to OUP's earlier volume of European Sacred Music. Both practical and scholarly in its aims, the primary sources have been consulted where feasible . . . The editing is examplary and follows widely accepted norms. . . The standard of music setting and layout is as you would expect from such a distinguished publishing house. While Rutter's collection is probably beyond the resources of the average parish choir (the majority of the motets are for eight voices), any director of a reasonably proficient chamber choir need look no further should he be seeking a varied, enjoyable and rewarding programme of seasonal music this Christmas.

John Rutter studied music at Clare College, Cambridge and first came to notice as a composer and arranger of Christmas carols and other choral pieces during those early years; today his compositions, including such concert-length works as Requiem, Magnificat, Mass of the Children, The Gift of Life, and Visions are performed around the world. John edits the Oxford Choral Classics series, and, with Sir David Willcocks, co-edited four volumes of Carols for Choirs. In 1983 he formed his own choir The Cambridge Singers, with whom he has made numerous recordings on the Collegium Records label, and he appears regularly in several countries as a guest conductor and choral ambassador. John holds a Lambeth Doctorate in Music, and was awarded a CBE for services to music in 2007.