No longer will the favourite joke of ‘I can’t believe it’s not Rutter!’ be wheeled out every time an honours list is published. In what many would say is a long overdue event, composer John Rutter has received a knighthood in The King’s Birthday Honours List 2024, an honour also awarded to Roger Wright, former controller of Radio 3 and director of the BBC Proms.
Sir John’s knighthood recognises a career that stretches right back to the early 1960s when, as an 18 year-old, he composed the Shepherd’s Pipe Carol. This and several other festive works have since become favourites of choirs across the globe, making him one of today’s most regularly performed composers.
However, while he has become particularly associated with Christmas – not least as a co-editor and major contributor to the Carols for Choirs anthologies since 1970 – he has also written substantial pieces away from the festive season, such as his Gloria, Requiem and Magnificat. In 2011, Rutter was commissioned to write the anthem ‘This is the day’ for the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton, while the Coronation of Charles III last year featured no fewer than six works in arrangements by him.
Above all, he gladly acknowledges, his success has been founded on a simplicity of style, making his easily accessible for performers and listeners alike. ‘It’s important to be sincere,’ he told BBC Music Magazine in 2020. ‘If it’s easy to grasp, or if some people say it’s too sugary or sentimental, then tough! You have to be true to yourself.’
Knighthood for Britten Pears chief
Alongside the John Rutter knighthood, Roger Wright’s award coincides with his retirement this year as chief executive of Britten Pears Arts – though he himself insists that, at 67, he has no plans to give up work entirely. As reported in the July issue of BBC Music, Sir Roger’s ten years at the helm of the Suffolk organisation – which runs the Aldeburgh Festival, Snape Maltings Concert Hall and the Red House, erstwhile home of Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears – has seen it take considerable steps in opening it up to and engaging the local public. His time at the Proms and Radio 3, meanwhile, won similar praise for bringing in a wider audience, all delivered with an admirable lack of airs and graces.
‘You are only ever as good as the work you do, the things you put on, the people with whom you do the work and the people you serve,’ Sir Roger told BBC Music, ‘and that comes back to Benjamin Britten’s vision of music being useful to society. That vision is the thing, ultimately, against which we test ourselves.’