Alan Bolt would have been thrilled the piece had finally been performed, his widow said
Close up of sheet music which is yellowed and has a few minor tears. It is lying flat on a dark wood table.
A piece of orchestral music written inside a prisoner of war camp during World War Two has been performed for the first time.
Alan Bolt, who lived near Barrow for decades before his death in 2019 at age 100, wrote the concerto at a German PoW camp near the end of the war in celebration of the anticipated Allied victory.
His widow Alison Bolt said the piece - Overture for a Festival - was never performed because the camp was liberated soon after by Russian soldiers.
The composition was finally performed by the Liverpool Philharmonic in Barrow Town Hall on Friday and his widow said he would have been "absolutely over the moon".
Alison Bolt said: "[It was] made up of players from all kinds of allied countries including Poland, Holland, USA, Canada, South Africa."
Some of the players already had instruments in the camp whereas other instruments were obtained via trades among locals in the surrounding countryside, she also said.
Alison Bolt sitting at a desk with lots of framed photographs on the wall. She is holding a booklet with the title "Bolt's War" and a picture of Alan. She has grey hair and a white cardigan on. She is wearing dark blue earring and a green and white patterned top. There is a wooden cabinet behind her.
The orchestra primarily played well known classical pieces but near the end of 1944 Alan wrote a new piece in anticipation of the expected Allied victory, Alison said.
"They started rehearsing it… but in fact it never got performed because the Russians came in and liberated the camp," she said.
Alan kept the sheet music it remained in the couple's attic in Cumbria until his death.
She said she was at one of the Liverpool Philharmonic's pop-up concerts in Barrow when she had a "lightbulb moment" and sought their help.
"[Alan] would have been just absolutely over the moon for it be performed here in Barrow," she said.
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Helen Quayle's straight blonde hair is half up. She is wearing a brown trench coat and a scarf with green, brown and red square pattern. She is holding a vinyl of the Vickers Brass Band, titled Prelude to a New Age. There are photographs of ships on the cover and the title letters are blue. Quayle is surrounded by pink and purple potted plants as she stands in what appears to be the yard of and old brown-brick building with ornate windows.
