Concerts

For eight years Carl held the post of Artistic Director and Conductor for the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra‘s Summer Pops Season conducting Sounds of the City, a concert to show the richness of the musical legacy from the great musicians and composers of Liverpool and a recording followed. As part of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra’s 150th anniversary celebrations in 1991, Carl and Sir Paul McCartney wrote a full length work entitled Paul McCartney’s Liverpool Oratorio, which premiered at the Anglican Cathedral, Liverpool, conducted by Carl, in June 1991 and was subsequently performed around the world. The EMI recording of the work achieved record sales world-wide and the BBC documentary was a must-see. Carl first conducted the annual open air concert at Leeds Castle in 1983 and this continued for 24 years. In 2005, Carl accepted a commission to compose a theme for The Leeds Rhinos (Rugby League world champions). Carl has also worked with the international super star Dame Edna Everage in the smash hit Last Night of the Proms – with a little help from Barry Humphries.

Throughout his career Carl Davis has composed concert works, among which a Clarinet Concerto, Fantasy for Flute, Strings and Harpsichord are particularly notable. In 2011 the brilliant cellist Jonathan Aasgaard, principal of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, asked Carl to write for him and the RLPO and subsequently commissioned the acclaimed Ballade for Cello and Orchestra. His symphonic work, A Circle of Stones, consists of four symphonic pictures for orchestra and was written for Mike Mansfield Publications for broadcast on S4C in 1997. There are also many concert suites derived from film scores, vocal music, choral works, instrumental and chamber music, and opera. In 2012 The Last Train to Tomorrow – a dramatic narrative for children’s choir, actors and orchestra, based on the story of the Kindertransport – was premiered by the Hallé Orchestra and Children’s Choir to great acclaim and subsequently received its London debut in 2014 at the Roundhouse in Camden, where HRH Prince Charles was in attendance, and has since been performed at Lincoln Centre in New York and as part of the prestigious 3 Choirs Festival in 2019.