Online festival celebrates Oscar-winning composer

A day of online concerts as part of a festival celebrating the Oscar-winning composer Malcolm Arnold continues his legacy of being "accessible", the organiser said.

Arnold, who died in 2006 aged 84, won the Academy Award for his score for The Bridge on the River Kwai - the 1957 film about British prisoners of war captured by the Japanese.

The festival in his name in his home town of Northampton is now in its 19th year.

Organiser and Arnold biographer Paul Hill said his music was "so accessible" to the public, and the online live concerts are being streamed for free on Sunday.

Arnold wrote more than 100 film scores, as well as nine symphonies, several concertos and other compositions, and he was conductor for Deep Purple's live album Concerto for Group and Orchestra.

He was born and lived most of his life in Northampton, and later moved to Norfolk and died at the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital.

Concerts and events were held in venues around Northampton on 19 October, as part of the annual festival.

The online day features free concerts of chamber, solo and orchestral music as well as talks, lectures and interviews.

Mr Hill said the composer "wanted [his music] to be accessible".

"Communication was important to him, he wanted to communicate with people, so he wrote tunes," He said.

He said during the 1940 and 1950s Arnold's music was not always well-received by critics but "people loved it and he stuck by it".

Asked what Arnold would have made of the festival Mr Hill said: "In his best days he was a wonderful human being and he got on so well with people I think he would love it."

Follow Northamptonshire news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.