‘You think you know what you’re writing, but sometimes you’re unleashing something that you don't understand.’

It took nearly a year to arrange the following encounter with John Rutter, but there was never any doubt that I wanted to include him in this book. He's a phenomenon: probably the most performed composer of all those whom I interviewed for this collection, yet the writer of the most conservative music. (I presumed that there was a connection.) My problem was that he's very busy, not just as a composer but also as a conductor – particularly of his own music, often in the USA – and as a record producer.

‘Sorry not to have responded earlier to your invitation’, he wrote to me in June 2011. ‘It arrived while I was away in New York and I’m afraid it got submerged in the pile after my return … At the moment I’m fully stretched, but hope to have some time probably in August.’ August came and went (‘Sorry my timetable is in such a state of flux, but I’m struggling with a major proof-reading commitment for my publishers, and other things have got bumped as a result’) and it wasn't until the following March that I had the opportunity to interview him at his home in Cambridgeshire. It was a day on which I was able to interview two composers, and after driving to London to talk to Robin Holloway in the morning I got back in the car to drive north towards Cambridge.

It was an unexpectedly warm, sunny afternoon for the time of year, and as I approached the main door at the back of Rutter's cottage I found stuck to it a yellow Post-it note that read, ‘Andrew Palmer – welcome, I’m in the office (behind you). John.’ It seemed typical of the friendliness for which he's known. Turning round, I saw across the courtyard a large wooden building and found inside it his PA, who was working at a computer. Rutter emerged from a small side-office and suggested that we go back to the house for the interview, which was conducted across the kitchen table while we drank tea.

I’d wondered beforehand whether I would encounter behind the immediate charm of his music and personality a tougher side to his character, for the demands of his workload suggest that there has to be one.