{"id":12380,"date":"2022-02-15T16:29:21","date_gmt":"2022-02-15T15:29:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/?p=6133"},"modified":"2022-02-15T18:25:10","modified_gmt":"2022-02-15T17:25:10","slug":"six-of-the-best-kings-singers-recordings","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/rss_feed\/six-of-the-best-kings-singers-recordings\/","title":{"rendered":"Six of the best\u2026 King\u2019s Singers recordings"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>

By BBC Music Magazine\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Tuesday, 15 February 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

\n\n

When six recent Cambridge and Oxford undergraduates took to the stage at the Southbank in May 1968, few of them could have envisaged just what was to come. Within a few years, the King\u2019s Singers were appearing regularly on prime-time TV, touring globally and selling out major venues.\u00a0 The group is still going strong today, though none of the current members were even born when that first concert took place. Over its 53 years in business, it has recorded many albums, ranging from Renaissance motets to six-part arrangements of Bowie and Billy Joel. Here are six of the very best\u2026<\/p>\n

King\u2019s Singers best recordings<\/h2>\n

Original Debut Recording (1971)<\/strong><\/h3>\n
The first ever King\u2019s Singers album consists mainly of popular songs, a number of which are heard in deft arrangements by Gordon Langford, whose Trio accompanies the group here. Originally released under the title By Appointment<\/em>, the disc is rounded off by Ron Goodwin\u2019s sublimely daft \u2018What Kind of Things (Do the King\u2019s Singers Sing)?\u2019 party piece. Chandos CHAN6562<\/em><\/p>\n
Buy from europadisc.co.uk<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n<h3><strong>Madrigal History Tour (1984)<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>A wide-ranging tour of Renaissance madrigals that followed the King\u2019s Singers\u2019 groundbreaking TV series of the same name. Accompanied by The Consort of Musicke and lutenist Anthony Rooley, the tour takes us on a musical journey of Italy, England, France, Spain and Germany, including composers such as Byrd, Lassus, Willaert and Flecha. <em>Warner Classics 585 7142<\/em><\/p>\n<ul class=\""monetizer-in-text-link-list"\"><li data-type=\""in-text"\" class=\""monetizer-in-text-link"\" data-config=\"'{"nameKeywords":\" history=\"\" tour=\"\" data-text=\""<b\">Buy now from {merchant} ({price}), {merchant} ({price}) and {merchant} ({price}).”> <\/li>\n<\/ul><script><![CDATA[ (function () { var s = document.createElement('script'); s.type = 'text\/javascript'; s.async = true; s.src = \"\/\/classical-music.com\/pricecomparison\/widget\/intext\/app.bundle.js\"; s.onload = function () { new inText({ domain: \"classical-music.com\/pricecomparison\", shopId: 1378, geolocation: true, }); }; var x = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; x.parentNode.insertBefore(s, x); \/\/trim whitespace from li to flag empty items (twig seems to strip out closing if you remove the space..... [].forEach.call(document.querySelectorAll('.monetizer-in-text-link'), function(textLink) { textLink.innerHTML = textLink.innerHTML.trim(); }); })();\n]]><\/script><p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<h3><strong>The Beatles Connection (1986)\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The composer Gy\u00f6rgy Ligeti, no less, was a major fan of \u2018Honey Pie\u2019 and \u2018You\u2019ve Got To Hide Your Love Away\u2019 on this disc of <em>a cappella <\/em>arrangements of Fab Four favourites. Arrangers include Daryl Runswick, a regular collaborator with the group, plus Bob Chilcott, who had recently began as tenor with the King\u2019s Singers at the time of the recording, and Bill Ives, the singer he had replaced. <em>EMI 749 5561<\/em><\/p>\n<ul class=\""monetizer-in-text-link-list"\"><li data-type=\""in-text"\" class=\""monetizer-in-text-link"\" data-config=\"'{"nameKeywords":\" beatles=\"\" connection=\"\" kings=\"\" singers=\"\" data-text=\""<b\">Buy now from {merchant} ({price}), {merchant} ({price}) and {merchant} ({price}).”> <\/li>\n<\/ul><script><![CDATA[ (function () { var s = document.createElement('script'); s.type = 'text\/javascript'; s.async = true; s.src = \"\/\/classical-music.com\/pricecomparison\/widget\/intext\/app.bundle.js\"; s.onload = function () { new inText({ domain: \"classical-music.com\/pricecomparison\", shopId: 1378, geolocation: true, }); }; var x = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; x.parentNode.insertBefore(s, x); \/\/trim whitespace from li to flag empty items (twig seems to strip out closing if you remove the space..... [].forEach.call(document.querySelectorAll('.monetizer-in-text-link'), function(textLink) { textLink.innerHTML = textLink.innerHTML.trim(); }); })();\n]]><\/script><h3><strong>Street Songs (1998)<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The King\u2019s Singers join forces with percussion Evelyn Glennie on this disc, with commissions from composers based in Johannesburg and the Western Cape alongside Steve Martland\u2019s <em>Street Songs<\/em>, diverse settings of English children\u2019s rhymes. The recording of the disc was accompanied by a major international tour to celebrate the 30th\u00a0anniversary of the ensemble.\u00a0<em>RCA <\/em><em>G010000245012M<\/em><\/p>\n<ul><li><strong><a href=\"\/\/www.amazon.co.uk\/Street-Songs-Kings-Singers\/dp\/B000007RSM?tag=classicalm05c-21&ascsubtag=classicalmusic-0"\" target=\""_blank"\" rel=\""sponsored" noopener noreferrer\">Buy from Amazon<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul><p><strong>Landscape and Time (2006)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>John McCabe, Peter Maxwell Davies and Richard Rodney Bennett are among the composers featured on this impeccably sung disc of modern masterpieces, recorded in the calm of a church in deepest rural Gloucestershire. The singers\u2019 language skills are to the fore as the disc takes us through texts in Finnish, Hungarian and Japanese among others. <em>Signum SIGCD090<\/em><\/p>\n<ul><li><strong><a href=\"\/\/www.amazon.co.uk\/Landscape-Time-Kings-Singers\/dp\/B001G4LGTI?tag=classicalm05c-21&ascsubtag=classicalmusic-0"\" target=\""_blank"\" rel=\""sponsored" noopener noreferrer\">Buy from Amazon<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul><iframe title=\""Spotify\" embed:=\"\" landscape=\"\" time=\"\" width=\""100%"\" height=\""380"\" style=\""[object\" object=\"\" frameborder=\""0"\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\""autoplay;\" clipboard-write=\"\" encrypted-media=\"\" fullscreen=\"\" picture-in-picture=\"\" src=\""https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/5lrbTNADWrAHz8iOZu7Jo4?utm_source=oembed"\"\/>\n<p><strong>GOLD (2017)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Recorded shortly before their golden anniversary, the King\u2019s Singers celebrate the group\u2019s 50 years over three discs that range from the Renaissance, through composers such as Saint-Sa\u00ebns and Schubert, to songs specially commissioned for the occasion. Die-hard fans, meanwhile, will also want to invest in the GOLD book, edited and co-written by <em>BBC Music Magazine<\/em>\u2018s Jeremy Pound and charting\u00a0 five decades of King\u2019s Singers history and including interviews with all 24 past-and-present members of the group up until 2017. <em>Signum SIGCD500 (discs); KSB50 (book)<\/em><\/p>\n<ul><li><strong><a href=\"\/\/store.hmv.com\/store\/music\/cd\/the-king-s-singers-gold"\" target=\""_blank"\" rel=\""nofollow noopener noreferrer\" noopener=\"\">Buy from HMV<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"\/\/www.whsmith.co.uk\/products\/the-kings-singers-gold\/0635212050026.html"\" target=\""_blank"\" rel=\""nofollow noopener noreferrer\" noopener=\"\">Buy from WHSmith<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul><\/body><\/html>\n<hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By BBC Music Magazine Published: Tuesday, 15 February 2022 at 12:00 am When six recent Cambridge and Oxford undergraduates took to the stage at the Southbank in May 1968, few of them could have envisaged just what was to come. Within a few years, the King\u2019s Singers were appearing regularly on prime-time TV, touring globally […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":12381,"template":"","categories":[1,17],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"3"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/02\/six-of-the-best-kings-singers-recordings.jpg",625,350,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/02\/six-of-the-best-kings-singers-recordings-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/02\/six-of-the-best-kings-singers-recordings-300x168.jpg",300,168,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/02\/six-of-the-best-kings-singers-recordings.jpg",625,350,false],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/02\/six-of-the-best-kings-singers-recordings.jpg",625,350,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/02\/six-of-the-best-kings-singers-recordings.jpg",625,350,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/02\/six-of-the-best-kings-singers-recordings.jpg",625,350,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By BBC Music Magazine Published: Tuesday, 15 February 2022 at 12:00 am When six recent Cambridge and Oxford undergraduates took to the stage at the Southbank in May 1968, few of them could have envisaged just what was to come. Within a few years, the King\u2019s Singers were appearing regularly on prime-time TV, touring globally…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/12380"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}