This means he adds a best composer honour to the lifetime achievement prize which had been previously announced.

The classical music awards, held at the Royal Albert Hall, also saw 20-year-old British pianist Benjamin Grosvenor become the youngest male recipient of a Classic BRIT Award, winning the critics’ prize for the album “Chopin, Liszt and Ravel”.

Among the highlights of the ceremony was a medley of Williams’ film scores performed by the London Chamber Orchestra, including passages from such memorable movie compositions as “Star Wars”, “ Harry Potter”, “Jaws”, “E.T.” and “Indiana Jones”.

The 80-year-old American won the composer award for his work on “ War Horse” and “The Adventures of Tintin”.

With a total of 47 Academy Award nominations, Williams is the second most nominated individual after Walt Disney, and he has five Oscar statuettes to his name.

Among the performers at the Classic BRITS, which are sponsored by Mastercard, were Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli, the cast of the West End musical “Phantom of the Opera” and Dutch musician Andre Rieu and his Johann Strauss Orchestra.

Montenegro-born guitarist Milos Karadaglic won the breakthrough artist category and Scottish violinist Nicola Benedetti picked up the best female artist title for her album “Italia”.

The male artist award went to Russian conductor Vasily Petrenko in recognition of his work on five albums released in the last 18 months.

Rieu and his Johann Strauss Orchestra picked up the album of the year award for “And the Waltz Goes On”, the Military Wives Choir with Gareth Malone won single of the year for “Wherever You Are” and Bocelli was named international artist of the year.