The new full score and performance material of Durham Concerto is now made available to coincide with what would have been Jon’s 73rd birthday Monday June 9.
This revised edition has been more than 18 months in the making, and is a major milestone on the long journey of preparing Jon’s complete works for publication.
The work was commissioned by the University of Durham in celebration of its 175th anniversary and first performed by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra in the magnificent surroundings of Durham Cathedral on 20 October 2007.
An immediate popular success, the hugely impressive and engaging work, takes just under an hour in performance, and involves a full symphony orchestra together with four soloists: violin, cello, Northumbrian Pipes, and Jon’s own Hammond organ.
Corrected and refined
Conductor Paul Mann‘s new edition takes into account many previously unavailable sources, including an extensive list of corrections made by the composer during the rehearsals for the premiere and for the recording sessions that followed, and also a great many other previously overlooked refinements of detail and orchestration.
A number of textual anomalies have also been corrected for the first time. The newly-edited score can therefore be said to represent as faithfully as possible Jon’s final intentions concerning one of the major works of his last years.
The 140-page full score includes Jon’s own programme note for the piece, as well as a few examples of his voluminous sketch material for the work, which Paul Mann has studied for the first time, shedding new light on what was a highly complex compositional process.
German world premiere
The world premiere of this new version will take place on May 19th 2015, with the Hagen Philharmonic Orchestra, in the Stadthalle Hagen, Germany, conducted by Paul Mann.
This was the orchestra with which Jon was composer in residence for the last year of his life, which makes it a highly appropriate setting, especially since Durham Concerto will be heard alongside one of the great classical symphonies inspired by a British University town, Haydn‘s Oxford Symphony (No.92).
Jon Lord - The Official Website 
Beautiful Jon’s performance and participation in Durham Cathedral in 2007!
It’s ever a big emotion to listen Jon’s music! he lives every day througth his music and we can feel his soul near us …for ever!
God bless you! SERGIO