Former DEEP PURPLE keyboardist JON LORD's Durham Concerto CD was released Avie Records on January 28th. The album debuted on the UK Classic Charts at #12.

An official MySpace page has been launched here. The site features excerpts from the event which was recorded on October 20, 2007 at Durham Cathedral in England.

Mischa Damev conducted the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and soloists Ruth Palmer (violin); Matthew Barley (cello); Kathryn Tickell (Northumbrian Pipes) and Jon Lord playing his original Hammond organ.

Durham Concerto was co-commissioned by Durham University and John McLaren, a Durham law graduate, to celebrate the University’s 175th anniversary. The writer Bill Bryson, Chancellor of Durham University commented:

“The prospect of a musician like Jon Lord composing an original concerto for a breathtaking space like Durham Cathedral is terribly exciting, not just for the University but for music fans everywhere.

The work emotionally evokes the sense of history, scholarship, place and community evident in Durham – an unbroken line from St Cuthbert and the Venerable Bede, Europe’s leading scholar of the 7th and 8th centuries, to the modern day university.

The hour-long Concerto consists of six movements, arranged into three parts: Morning, Afternoon and Evening. Morning describes the Cathedral at dawn and then the town coming to life. Afternoon starts with a movement representing the historic event where monks carried St Cuthbert’s body from Lindisfarne, and concludes as the composer contemplates the wonderful view from Prebends Bridge. The last section, Evening, captures the high spirits of a student dance and a Miner’s Gala, and ends with an imposing, but uplifting, movement in praise of the Cathedral.

When I first went to Durham, I was speechless. There is something about the space which is awe inspiring. Until then I had only seen Durham’s Cathedral from the train. Walking up through the old town to Palace Green and that astonishing Cathedral, I knew that I had said yes to the right project. Classical music is something I have held in my heart since I was a young boy. I had always written music and I started to play the classical piano at the age of six. Rock and roll snapped my head around and indeed has defined my career, but it never stopped me from loving classical music.”