Nigel Hess's most recent film score is for Ladies in Lavender, the feature film directed by Charles Dance and starring Dame Judi Dench and Dame Maggie Smith. Nigel has arranged the main theme from the film for Violin and Piano. The soundtrack, performed by virtuoso American violinist Joshua Bell and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, is now available on Sony Classics. More information on Nigel Hess and his other works can be found at www.myramusic.com

"Fantasy" for violin and piano was originally written for the final scene of the feature film Ladies in Lavender in which two Cornish sisters (Dames Judi Dench and Maggie Smith) attend a London premiere of a young virtuoso violinist (Daniel Bruhl) who they have been nurturing back to health after a tragic accident at sea. Although the piece was supposedly composed by the fictional Boris Danilov, the job of creating an authentic period piece of dazzling violin music fell to the film's composer, Nigel Hess, who utilized the main theme of the film, transforming the romantic major theme into an extended, bravura minor variation full of dramatic intensity and longing. It has now become a popular piece in its own right, establishing itself (not unlike the Warsaw Concerto before it) as an audience favorite in the concert repertoire. The piece was performed on the film soundtrack by Joshua Bell with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by the composer.

An evocative, heart-warming story of unfulfi lled dreams and unrequited love. Based on the hit film screenplay by Charles Dance starring Judi Dench and Maggie Smith, and on the original short story by William J. Locke, Ladies In Lavender tells the tale of two sisters Ursula and Janet who live in a close-knit fishing village in picturesque Cornwall, in 1936. When a handsome and talented young Polish violinist bound for America is washed ashore, the Widdington sisters take him under their wing and nurse him back to health. However, the presence of the mysterious young man disrupts their peaceful lives and the community in which they live.