This pair of Proms featured two of our most versatile chamber choirs, though The Sixteen were heard alone, whereas the BBC Singers’ programme was interspersed by instrumentals from the Nash Ensemble. But then, although they have recorded Stravinsky, Poulenc and Britten, The Sixteen surely remain rooted in Renaissance polyphony, not least the wondrous Eton Choirbook from which they took their initial line-up. “I’ve spent most of my career keeping out of their way,” he says, “either by writing the sort of music that doesn’t get reviewed, or by premiering my stuff in the States, where I’ve never had a problem.” But he’s at last detecting a mellower response: “They’re getting older and wiser, like me.”22 September, 7.30pm (020-7608 8813 / 8840). And we boys picked that up.”Quite without meaning to, Rutter thus pinpoints the defining characteristic of his own work, that quality which has made his carols resound throughout Europe and America, and as far away as Korea and Taiwan.Successful he may be, but not with the British critics.

His church music always has that little nameless thing which brings a lump to the throat, that little swelling of emotion in the breast – not sad, not self-indulgent, not schmaltzy – but filled with feeling. It was born out of grief – he wrote it as an elegy for his father – but four years ago Rutter’s life was marked by a much greater grief, when his elder son was knocked down and killed on the road. As he observes: “Everybody who listens to any Requiem weaves into it their own personal griefs and losses. That’s not what music’s for – it’s not therapy, but if it does have that function, that’s a useful side-effect.”
His initial training at school followed in the tradition of the Irish composer CV Stanford who, he says, had “a wonderful sense for what works vocally – gracious, fluent, haunting melodies. Wins the Mercury Music Prize for “songs that send shivers down the spine”. Antony and the Johnsons will tour the US and Europe for the rest of the year Oliver Duff. John Rutter is 60, and he’s celebrating the fact by conducting a performance of his celebrated Requiem in St Paul’s, alongside which he will also conduct a performance of John Tavener’s The Protecting Veil And thus, in several ways, his life comes full circle.

He and Tavener once sang side-by-side at school: “We are,” he says, “the friendliest of rivals.” Moreover, the evolution of the Requiem perfectly encapsulates the evolution of the gift which has made Rutter the most performed choral composer alive today. He appears in the Steve Buscemi film Animal Factory 2001 His EP “I Fell In Love With a Dead Boy” comes to the attention of Lou Reed; he tours with him in 2003, singing “Candy Says”, and appears on Reed’s album The Raven 2005 Releases second album, I Am A Bird Now, with cameos from Lou Reed, Boy George and Rufus Wainwright. After Blacklips he forms a new group, the Johnsons and decides to concentrate on music 2000 Antony and the Johnsons release their self-titled debut album. He finds the city more accepting of his sexual ambiguity 1992 Fulfils his ambition to become “a transvestite chanteuse at 3am nightclubs bathed in blue light, like Isabella Rossellini in Blue Velvet” by forming Blacklips, a theatrical troupe who put on a new, barely rehearsed play every week. Attended St Richard’s RC Primary School, where “the dinner ladies tried to get me to play with the boys on the other side of the playground” 1970 The family moves to Amsterdam 1981 The Hegartys relocate to San Jose, California. Antony attends a Catholic elementary school and a high school for the performing arts. He finds school in the US more difficult than in Britain, and reacts to being “singled out” by wearing more make-up 1990 Joins New York University to study experimental theatre – “about as useful as a degree in knitting,” he later says.

Do you know what I mean? You have to be gentle with it.” Antony Hegarty, the story so far 1970 Born in Chichester, Sussex. But, he said as we finished our lunch: “I love that quote from Candy Darling, from her diaries, when she says, ‘Love is a delicate spirit that loses its essence under scrutiny’ I think sometimes hope is the same way. “You seemed to move through the places that I feared,” he sang. “You lived inside my world so softly …” The crowd, already knowing the words, sang Boy George’s chorus back to him: “You are my sister, and I love you/May all of your dreams come true.” For the first time in a long time, Antony began to feel hopeful. Earlier this year, they sang it together at Joe’s Pub, and Boy George says he saw Reed in the audience with tears in his eyes. And then, when his spring tour swung through Ireland, Antony had to sing it in Belfast by himself. “Antony’s vulnerability is so honest and powerful, and that is what makes a true star,” Boy George told me in an e-mail message.

But, he pointed out, “I’ve seen live audiences twitching when he performs, because some people get very uncomfortable with such raw vulnerability I love it. It’s what we need now.” The song Antony sings with Boy George is a slow, stately duet called ” You Are My Sister”. He’s one of many guest voices on I Am a Bird Now, including Boy George, who Antony got to know through working briefly with him on Taboo before its short run on Broadway. “Fistful of Love,” a song he performed back in his Blacklips days, was, on I Am a Bird Now, heated up by horns into a chugging, growling wonder that almost lets you forget that it is sung from the point of view of an abused lover celebrating his own bruises Lou Reed opens that particular song with a short soliloquy. This image caught the attention of the producer Hal Willner, who bought the EP and played it for Lou Reed, with whom he was working at the time. Reed said: “He’s a great guy, absurdly talented, and he seemed ready to sing.” But it’s not only that Antony can sing, he added.