Oxford’s academic rival has always been University of Cambridge, the two representing the Crown Jewels of Great Britain. The worth of these universities is incalculable. Isaac Newton was the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge. Without Newton’s laws or his invention of calculus, the world’s economies would grind to a halt in a millisecond. Darwin studied here as a student, hoping to become a priest. He became instead the greatest biologist in history with his discovery of evolution by natural selection. The DNA double helix structure was discovered here by Crick and Watson opening the door to countless innovations in medicine. Alan Turing who invented the modern computer, also called Turing’s machine, taught at Cambridge. He also saved western civilization by cracking the Enigma code in the Second World War.
We are listening to Choir of King’s College, Cambridge, in a magnificent performance of choral music beginning with Claudio Monteverdi’s scintillating Cantate Domino. King’s College choir was founded, appropriately enough, by the 19-year-old King Henry VI in 1441. It has remained a bastion of religious scholarship and worship for almost 600 years. That history shows in this brilliant 24-bit 96khz recording featuring the angelic voices of its boys choir. According to the King’s decree, the choir was supposed to include six “singing boys” and 16 choristers who were “poor boys of a strong constitution and a honest conversation”. I love the way Kings wrote such decrees 600 years ago!
Today, the choristers are selected from the 420 students at King’s College School, across the river from King’s College, now featuring 420 girls and boys. The men in the choir are of course required to be undergraduate students at the University of Cambridge. You have to be brilliant and have a great singing voice to be in this choir. It must be daunting to sing in a chapel that’s 600 years old. Having seen it in person, I can attest to its architectural magnificence. There’s nothing like it in the US.
This recording will teach you a lot about midrange coloration in your system. It should sound entirely natural with not a hint of midrange brightness, even as the high treble of the young boys voices soars in the chapel. A desert island disc.
View attachment 145390
