Apart from Oxbridge, the huge majority of major British universities are located in or near famous cities like London, Bristol, Manchester, Edinburgh, and benefit richly by association. The beautiful City of Durham, on the other hand, is virtually unknown abroad. How strange and sad that this should be true of a place graced with one of our greatest cathedrals and a castle of Norman origin, stunningly set on a hill overlooking a horseshoe meander of the River Wear – a prospect fine enough to an automatic choice for the cover of a vast number of tourist guides to the country.

The remedy was clear - the best way to spread awareness of the university abroad was to promote Durham itself, including harnessing the power of music to achieve this. Thus was born the idea of the Durham Concerto, a piece commissioned to be premiered as a centrepiece event in the anniversary celebrations, and then to be performed internationally, concentrating on those regions, especially in Asia and the seaboard of the US, which are of greatest importance to the university.

In order to maximise this impact, when seeking a suitable composer Durham turned to Jon Lord, who, early in his long career with Deep Purple, wrote a Concerto for Rock Group and Orchestra, which has been hugely successful and has remained one of the most regularly performed works for symphony orchestra. Jon Lord has a wide international following, and is now established as a highly regarded composer of music for classical forces.

The project was conceived by a Durham University alumnus, John McLaren, a former diplomat and investment banker and now novelist, who is founder of Masterprize, the world’s leading prize for classical composers.