Designed for pianists at early intermediate level, the collection provides skilful and approachable arrangements of festive favourites. Tickets: 714.The John Rutter Christmas Piano Album brings together eight of the composer's best-loved seasonal choral pieces as piano transcriptions, made by John Rutter himself, for performance use or enjoyment at home. John Rutter: The Piano Collection was recorded by Wayne Marshall and released in November 2020 by Decca Records.Who or what inspired you to take up composing, and pursue a career in music?An afternoon of holiday music to start the season, featuring John Rutter's Magnificat plus traditional and contemporary holiday pieces. They were recorded by Wayne Marshall on an album released in July 2020 by Decca Records. The Piano Collection: A Flower Remembered: arrangements of eight of his most popular choral pieces for solo piano.
David continued to champion my work, and he remained a mentor and friend to me for the rest of his life. It was thanks to him that my first little compositions (a group of Christmas carols!) were published, and this led to my association with Oxford University Press which has lasted for a very long time. Also at Cambridge I met and got to know Sir David Willcocks, the renowned director of King’s College Choir who believed in my compositional talent and took me under his wing.
My only frustration is that I don’t get more done.What are the special challenges/pleasures of working on a commissioned piece?It’s many years since I’ve undertaken commissioned work. I’m not prolific, but then I divide my energies: composition is the compulsion, I guess, but conducting is the pleasure, and being among musicians, sometimes in the role of recording producer, is a great joy and privilege. Every day of my life I’m shamed by the quantity and quality of music that so many composers have succeeded in writing when there are only twenty-four hours in a day. Finding the will power and stamina to write when you’re tired and busy with other work is hard.
The challenge with a commission is to come up with something that fits the required specification, the pleasure is to be told that it does fit and that you have actually surpassed expectations.What are the special challenges/pleasures of working with particular musicians, singers, ensembles and orchestras?It always helps if you have the sound of a particular artist or ensemble in your head as you write: you’re writing specially for them. I’m less productive than in the years I was doing commissions, but I’m less stressed. After about seven years I made a full recovery, but did not by then want to go back to what had become a treadmill, so I continued in a pattern that I have stuck with ever since: from time to time I respond to invitations and suggestions from the outside world, but then I also work on my own projects. When you accept a commission there is a binding obligation to deliver on time, and I had to accept that I might not always be able to do that, so I stopped.
But I hope recognisable as my own.Who are your favourite musicians/composers?Too many to list. I just want the next piece I write to be the best yet.How would you characterise your compositional language?Eclectic. I don’t think about my past work except when I find myself conducting it. The problems can start when other groups, perhaps not as skilled as those you have written for, have difficulty and think your music is unreasonably hard, or maybe they just don’t get it.That would be like admiring yourself in the mirror. It’s a poor composer who can’t craft a piece well for its intended performers. If it’s a group I’m thoroughly familiar with – King’s College Choir in the radiant acoustic of its chapel – I’m half way there before I start.
If you have a spark of something, it will communicate, regardless of style.Where would you like to be in 10 years’ time?Enjoying a meal with family and friends after a concert or recording has gone well.John Rutter was born in London in 1945 and studied music at Clare College, Cambridge. If you are a performer, try to be true to the composer’s vision if you are a composer, be true to yourself. Work harder and more perseveringly than anyone round you. If I dislike what I’m hearing, I tend to blame myself.As a musician, what is your definition of success?To have achieved at least part of what you set out to do.What do you consider to be the most important ideas and concepts to impart to aspiring musicians?Be very, very good at what you do if you possibly can.
John Rutter Piano Music Professional Chamber Choir
In 2003 Mass of the Children, a major work for adult and children’s choir, soloists, and orchestra, was premiered in New York’s Carnegie Hall conducted by the composer. From 1975-9 he was Director of Music at Clare College, and in 1981 formed his own choir, the Cambridge Singers, as a professional chamber choir primarily dedicated to recording.Rutter’s choral works, including his Requiem and Gloria, are frequently performed around the world.
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