Music composed by Hollywood legend Sir Anthony Hopkins will be at the centre of a CBSO festival. Christopher Morley reports.

The CBSO has long had a reputation for its forays out of the concert-repertoire and into film music, whether accompanying silent films in the pit at Symphony Hall, or performing whole-evening extravaganzas of scores written for the silver screen.

But next week it presents something unique, mounting its own Film Music Festival in a series of programmes culminating in premieres of scores by Hollywood legend Sir Anthony Hopkins.

We all know Sir Anthony to be an accomplished actor. What is less well-known is his activity as an enthusiastic composer of works in a variety of formats, including a piece recently premiered to great acclaim by the celebrity violinist Andre Rieu.

This CBSO Film Music Festival will end on July 23 with a programme of works by Hopkins himself, including music from his own movies August and Slipstream, as well as scores from films in which he is well remembered: Silence of the Lambs, Remains of the Day and Shadowlands.

CBSO associate conductor Michael Seal will be on the podium, and Sir Anthony will be present, talking about his music and creative process with the festival’s artistic advisor and presenter Tommy Pearson.

Many of Sir Anthony’s compositions have been orchestrated by Stephen Barton, himself the composer of soundtracks for so many blockbuster movies, including Shrek 2 and The Chronicles of Narnia, as well as for video games and television projects.

From his home in Los Angeles, Barton tells me how he came to be so involved with the work of Sir Anthony, beginning with his own musical background.

“I was a cathedral chorister at Winchester, and later studied piano at the specialist Wells Cathedral School,” he says. “Then I got a job as a writer/arranger for another film composer for five years, Harry Gregson-Williams – and left that to found my own company about three or four years ago.

“I’ve been lucky enough to compose for some incredible players and on some major franchises like the Shrek and Narnia movies, the Call of Duty videogame series, amongst many others.”

How did Barton come to enter into this collaboration with Sir Anthony?

“My agents at the time introduced us, in 2006. Tony had just finished editing his second film as a director, Slipstream, and was about three weeks away from finishing it.