Since 2008 Nigel Hess’ A Christmas Overture has raised festive roofs worldwide. The 8-minute orchestral overture, commissioned and premiered by Sir John Rutter, has received over 450 performances to date; in December 2024 it makes 32 outings on concert platforms ranging from Munich’s Prinzeregentstheater to the National Concert Hall in Dublin, Olavshallen, in Trondheim, Glasgow’s Royal Concert Hall and Symphony Hall, Birmingham.
Hess' exuberant orchestral medley has been widely taken up, receiving performances from the New York Philharmonic, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Hallé, and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra – as well as dozens of community and amateur ensembles the world over. The piece also now exists in popular versions for brass band, and wind band, with the latter recorded for the Chandos release “New London Pictures”, performed by The Central Band of the Royal Air Force under the composer’s baton. On a more intimate scale, Hess' piano album Silent Nights - published by Faber Music - has also set the yuletide mood on the UK's Classic FM radio station with its arrangements of traditional carols.
The popularity of A Christmas Overture is testament to Hess’ skill as an orchestrator and intuitive feeling for melody, reflected in a catalogue of approachable and open-hearted orchestral pieces. These qualities were recognised in 2023 when Hess was commissioned by King Charles III to write Be Thou My Vision for the Coronation, an orchestral triptych written with Roderick Williams and Shirley J Thompson, conducted by Sir Antonio Pappano.
It was released on Decca as part of the Official Coronation Album - stream Be Thou My Vision here – and subsequently reworked for full orchestra later that year, premiered by the RPO and John Rutter at the Royal Albert Hall. Based on one of King Charles' favourite hymns, the text was originally written by the early Christian Irish poet Dallán Forgaill in the 6th century, and is one of the oldest hymns in the world. Hess opens the piece with a stirring horn call inspired by the vaulting architecture of the Westminster Abbey and its expansive acoustic, before a lush, Romantic rendition of the main melody.
Hess’ longstanding artistic relationship with the Royal Family pervades his orchestral output. In 2007 he composed a ballet score after The Old Man of Lochnagar, a children’s story written by the then Prince of Wales in 1980, commissioned and premièred by the National Youth Ballet of Great Britain. The magical fable tells the story of a bad-tempered soul who is forced, by a majestic eagle, to look back on a selfish and unfulfilling life. He is plunged into the watery deep of Lochnagar and joins in fantastical games and dances, before being flown to rocky heights. These rejuvenating experiences cause him to cast off his misanthropic persona.
A 14-minute Suite from the ballet is available for orchestra and symphonic wind band, presenting three episodes from the piece: a folksy selection of Scottish Dances open the work, followed by the brooding lyricism of ‘Dark Lochnagar’. The majestic ‘Dance of the Eagle’ brings the suite to a soaring close. Hess’ sympathy for folk music is also on display in the evocative orchestral tone poem The Lakes of Cold Fen (2017), a 7-minute celebration of a traditional Cambridgeshire folksong collected by Ralph Vaughan Williams from John Harman in Bassingbourn in 1907 and which features on the Hess portrait album The Way of Light.
2007 also saw the premiere of Hess’ Concerto for Piano and Orchestra from Lang Lang, commissioned by The Prince of Wales in memory of his late grandmother, the Queen Mother. Hess was also honoured to be asked to arrange and direct the music for the late Queen’s private 90th birthday celebration at Windsor Castle and for the then Prince Charles' 70th birthday dinner at Buckingham Palace.
Nigel Hess’s original score to Ladies in Lavender has also made an impact on the concert platform since the film, starring Dames Judi Dench and Maggie Smith, premiered in 2004. Joshua Bell performed the violin solos on the haunting soundtrack, the latter earning a Classical Brit nomination for Hess. The ‘Fantasy For Violin and Orchestra’ and the ‘Ladies in Lavender Theme’ now appear regularly in concert programmes. A new 15-minute Ladies in Lavender Suite for violin and orchestra debuted in 2012 with Clio Gould and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (under Hess's baton).
Just as ebullient a concert opener as A Christmas Overture is Hess’ perennial A Celebration Overture. Commissioned to celebrate the 175th anniversary of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, it premiered with chief conductor Vasily Petrenko as part of Classic FM Live at London’s Royal Albert Hall in September 2022; it was recorded by the BBC Concert Orchestra, conducted by Richard Balcombe.
The 6-minute piece is thoroughgoing in its response to the RLPO’s request for “some good tunes”. The horn section is the first to introduce the "celebration" tune, immediately picked up by the rest of the orchestra; the party atmosphere redoubles when the percussion join in with bongos and cabasa. Woodwind and solo strings introduce another optimistic theme which the brass section try to commandeer as their own. A solo oboe then introduces a more plaintive and thoughtful melody, picked up by a flute and violin, before the horns invite us back to the celebrations and a breathless finale.