Fanfare for a Durham Lord

Jon Lord and the Durham Concerto are featured in the March/April issue of American Fanfare magazine.

In a long interview, Jon speaks about the Durham Concerto and his background as a classical composer:

– I work on several levels. My favorite way is to improvise at the piano. I’ve got a really lovely piano, I bought it 25 years ago, it’s my baby, I love it. There’s no better way to spend an afternoon than just noodling. And occasionally you come up with a little line that feels good, and you just jot it down and go on, Jon Lord explains.

Jon Lord’s musical upbringing started in classical music:

– I had the same teacher from about the age of nine to 17. He made me write fugues, and he made me play the piano. He always had me playing pieces that I thought were too difficult – and then, much to my surprise, after a few weeks I found that I was playing them.

– It wasn’t till I was in my late teens that rock and roll crept in and whispered, or shouted in my ear, and I fell in love with it.

On being impressed with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra during the recording of the Durham Concerto (before it was performed live at Durham Cathedral):

– We had four three-hour sessions. That was pushing it, [but] when we started recording – the first run through of the piece – I thought it was pretty close to being perfect. I was very, very impressed, Jon Lord enthuses.

In other parts of the interview, Jon Lord speaks about writing a violin concerto, being met with prejudism from orchestras because of his rock background, and his desire to write more film music.

Read the full interview in Fanfare magazine’s March/April issue – shortly on-line for subscribers at fanfaremag.com. Hard copies are mailed out during February.

Myspace for Durham
You can find much more information about the Durham Concerto at myspace.com/durhamconcerto.

Thanks to Joel Flegler and Ruth Varney.