THE Bowes Museum is renewing its acquaintance with the sounds of brass bands after a gap of two years.
As part of the Durham Brass 2018 festival, the museum will be the setting for the first performance of a specially commissioned piece of music inspired by the major summer exhibition The BFG in Pictures.
The exhibition will feature 40 original Quentin Blake illustrations from the Roald Dahl children’s classic.
Composer Nigel Hess has been asked to come up with a piece of music which will be played by The Fine Arts Brass Ensemble at The Bowes Museum on Tuesday, July 17.
Durham Brass artistic director Paul Gudgin explained: “When I heard that The Bowes Museum had got this fantastic exhibition, it felt like a good moment to see if we could commission a special piece of music.
“The illustrations are fantastic, but also one of my thoughts was they have such widespread appeal.
“We thought we had a chance to create something that would appeal across the age ranges.”
Mr Gudgin said Mr Hess was an obvious choice to come up with a suitable piece of music.
“He is someone who has done work in the theatre, film and has a strong classical background – and he understands what it is like to write under a bit of pressure,” he said.
Mr Hess’s credits are extensive. He has written music for TV shows such as Maigret, Last of the Summer Wine, Hetty Wainthropp Investigates and Dangerfield.
Film credits include a An Ideal Husband, starring James Wilby, Sadie Frost and Robert Hardy, and 2004’s Ladies in Lavender with Dames Judi Dench and Maggie Smith and directed by Charles Dance.
Mr Gudgin said the idea was to invite local school children into the museum to listen to the rehearsal of the piece before its premiere.
In addition to the new piece of music, The Fine Arts Brass Ensemble will perform Mussorgskty’s Pictures at an Exhibition.
It is not the first time officials at The Bowes Museum have teamed up with organisers of the annual brass festival, which is in its 12th year.
In 2016, the museum stepped in to host a Party in the Park concert in its grounds after Barnard Castle town council members declined to support the festival.
The concert featured brass musicians from all over the world and was well received despite limited publicity.
Free concerts continue to form part of the festival in the form of the Big Brass Bash, however, none will be staged the dale this year.
The closest venues are Glenholme Park, Crook (Tuesday, July 17, 6pm-9pm) and Timothy Hackworth Park, Shildon (Wednesday, July 18, 6pm-9pm).
Others take place in Peterlee, Spennymoor, Aycliffe and Wharton Park, Durham, and will feature international street bands from France, Spain, the US and Serbia.
Tickets to The Fine Arts Brass Ensemble concert at The Bowes Museum are £18 and £16 concs. The show starts at 7.30pm.
Full details of this and all other Durham Brass festival events are available online at www.brassfestival.co.uk
