CARL DAVIS is continuing his love affair with silent movies at the Philharmonic Hall on Saturday with a double bill of treats for the audience.

First up is not a film at all but the world premiere of a filmic composition he has written for RLPO lead cellist Jonathan Aasgaard.

“Knowing him very well it was really a pleasure,” says the conductor/composer. “I did it very rapidly and it’s a real story, as if it were a miniature film with no pictures. It’s what I call ‘not quite a concerto’.”

The new 20-minute piece, entitled Ballade for Cello and Orchestra, conveys a “boy meets girl, boy gets girl, boy loses girl” love story.

“He strides off unrepentant. They both decide it’s more cool not to have the affair, and in the meantime they’ve sworn eternal love,” laughs Davis.

The second half of the concert will feature a screening of Charlie Chaplin’s 1923 film, The Pilgrim, about a criminal on the run posing as the new priest of small town.

“It has the naughtiest little boy you will ever have seen on film,” says the Cranford composer.

“Charlie’s being tormented by this brat, and has to remain social and polite through it all. It’s wonderful.”

Davis’s interest in silent movies began with Chaplin – watching his shorts as a boy in New York cinemas.

“It’s the combination of live music and pictures that interests me,” he says.

“I’ve always thought they were wonderful but I never dreamt for a minute I would be basing a career around it.”

CHAPLIN’S The Pilgrim is at the Philharmonic Hall on April 30.