Description
The British composer, Nigel Hess (b. 1953), has written hundreds of scores for stage and screen but he is perhaps best known for his soundtrack to the 2004 film Ladies in Lavender. The film is set in picturesque coastal Cornwall, in a tight-knit fishing village in the 1930s. It follows the affections of two sisters, played by Dame Judi Dench and Dame Maggie Smith. They find a handsome young Polish violinist washed up on the beach, having been swept overboard from a ship bound for America. As they nurse him back to health his presence disrupts the sisters’ – and the village’s – previously peaceful existence.
Hess’s endearing, romantic and poignant main theme perfectly matches the stunning scenery and ocean vistas. It was performed in the film by the violinist Joshua Bell with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and is here presented in an arrangement for wind quintet.
