World premiere of treasured composer’s violin concerto

World premiere of treasured composer's violin concerto. The Durham University Orchestral Society is to perform the world premiere of a work by one of Britain's most treasured classical composers. The Violin Concerto No. 2 in G minor by Sir Charles Villiers Stanford will be performed by the Durham University Chamber Orchestra in Durham Cathedral on Friday 2 March. Professor Jeremy Dibble, Department of Music, Durham University, an expert on Stanford, has orchestrated the piece which will be played for the first time in public by the University Orchestra. Stanford, who died in 1924 at the age of 75 composed many pieces of classical music and only left the work in an unpublished version for violin and piano in 1918 (just before the end of World War 1). He was made an honorary Doctor of Civil Law at Durham University in 1894 and was the subject of an extensive biography by Professor Dibble in 2002 reflecting a specialism at Durham for 19th and 20th Century British and Irish music.