Authenticity in song: I chat to pianist James Baillieu about his new role on the Britten Pears Arts Young Artist Programme, performing with soprano Lise Davidsen & the future of song

James Baillieu (Photo: David Ruano)

From this year, pianist James Baillieu and conductor/composer Ryan Wigglesworth begin a three-year tenure as Associate Directors of the Britten Pears Arts Young Artist Programme, with both men being significantly involved in this year's Aldeburgh Festival which runs from 12 to 26 June 2026. 

For James the appointment is a big honour. He comments that Britten Pears Arts is a wonderful organisation, very collaborative and very collegial. As he sees it, he has been brought on board to take the legacy of Britten and Pears forward, to keep their ideals at the heart of the training but have the teaching and training for the Young Artists responding to what the music world is like today. They are moving away from a 'one size fits all' approach to seeing what each Young Artist needs.

There will continue to be a Festival Academy, a week of masterclasses during the festival. But they will be adding performance psychology, career building, health and wellness and movement, the additional skills that are generally not taught in conservatoires. Typically, the masterclasses have been voice and piano and James wants to add instrumental duos as James feels that there is not a lot of focus on these. For young song pianists opportunities are not as widely available as when James was a young pianist, and they need to develop versatility by having instrumental repertoire too. James wants to look at the versatility of the young musicians and consider what skills they need to help them get working.

Complementary to this, Ryan Wigglesworth's focus will be orchestral and composition. James is also working on strategic partnerships with organisations with similar ideals so that Britten Pears Arts can amplify the exposure that the Young Artists get, helping them get the opportunities they need.

James Baillieu & Benjamin Appl at the Aldeburgh Festival in 2025 (Photo: Britten Pears Arts)

Aldeburgh Festival 2026: our East Anglia-based correspondent Tony Cooper takes a deep dive into the delights on offer at next year's festival

The 77th edition of the Aldeburgh Festival comes round in flaming June while marking the 50th anniversary of Benjamin Britten’s death and, therefore, the festival will not only celebrate his music but also the legacy he and Peter Pears established by their commitment in helping to develop the careers of young outstanding artists.

The opening event - a semi-stage performance of Debussy’s delicate, dreamlike and mysterious five-act opera, Pelléas et Mélisande, directed by Rory Kinnear - promises a hot ticket coming as it does with a stellar cast featuring Jacques Imbrailo as Pelléas and Sophie Bevan as Mélisande while Gordon Bintner, Sarah Connolly and John Tomlinson take on the roles of Golaud, Geneviève and Arkel with Ryan Wigglesworth in the pit with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.  

The French libretto was adapted from Belgian/Flemish-born playwright Maurice Maeterlinck’s symbolist and enigmatic play of the same name, a work full of symbolic and ambiguous meanings peppered with shadowy characters and perfect for the likes of the composer in his innovative approach to opera and for his startlingly new musical language.  

His only completed opera, he finished it in 1902. The critics were rather perplexed by its content but over the course of time Pelléas has become one of the most admired works in the repertoire beguiling audiences time and time again with its elusive shimmering beauty.  

Britten Pears Arts has embarked on the first phase of a £13.8 million Capital Programme to upgrade facilities at Snape Maltings

Snape Maltings, Britten Pears  (Photo: Britten Pears Arts)

Arts organisation spends lots of money - that ought to be a common enough headline but in today's climate large-scale spending in the arts is becoming rarer. Which is why it is nice to be able to report that Britten Pears Arts has embarked on the first phase of a £13.8 million Capital Programme to upgrade facilities at Snape Maltings. 

Under architects De Matos Ryan, the Britten Pears Building which was originally converted in 1979 will be modernised, with revamped studio and performance spaces, a new lift and a more welcoming environment. Five larger music studios will be created, and all the technical facilities will be modernised.  A new upper floor learning facility will be created and the building will be thermally and acoustically insulated, part of Britten Pears Arts’ ongoing drive for more sustainable buildings.

This transformation will enable the expansion of the Britten Pears Arts Community and Creative Health programmes:

• Residencies which are currently oversubscribed, and the works will allow the organisation to work with more artists.
• Increased opportunities for Artist Development
• Expansion of Britten Pears Arts’ work with adults living with long-term health conditions including
• SkyLarks – Britten Pears Arts’ singing group for people living with Parkinson’s and their companions
• Participate – relaxed and fun music workshops for adults in Suffolk
• Increased activity for Families & Young people including
• Group A – Britten Pears Arts’ vocal initiative for young people in Suffolk
• Aldeburgh Young Musicians – creative and collaborative training for promising young musicians aged 10 – 18
• Mini Music Makers – fun sessions of music and play for 0 – 5 year olds
• Music Makers for 5 – 7 year olds and 8 – 11 year olds

In addition to the upgrades to the Britten Pears Building the Capital Programme includes:

• Work with the Alde and Ore Estuary Trust and East Suffolk Water Management Board to design a scheme to raise the Snape Maltings flood defences to ensure that the Snape Maltings site will be protected
• A series of upgrades to Snape Maltings Concert Hall to improve access, audience comfort, and programming flexibility and to reduce carbon emissions. There will be auditorium seating improvements, upgraded lighting, flexible acoustic baffles, an extra passenger lift, refurbished toilets and better kitchen facilities. Work is due to start in January 2027
• Significantly lowering carbon emissions by installing roof insulation, use of photovoltaic panels, and by connecting the music buildings to a renewable heating system
• Snape Rooms: As well as improvements to existing artist accommodation at Snape Maltings and in Aldeburgh, ten new bedrooms will be created at Snape Maltings for visiting musicians, arts practitioners and visitors. Work is due to start in early 2027
• There will be a new visitor exhibition at The Red House and a Discovery Centre at Snape Maltings, to tell the fascinating stories about the heritage sites

Full details from the Britten Pears Arts website.

Music and arts to transform people’s lives: Britten Pears Arts presents Summer at Snape 2025

Having emerged from the Aldeburgh Festival [see Tony's review of the closing concerts], Snape Maltings is gearing up for this year's Summer at Snape, a month-long celebration of music running from 26 July – 31 August 2025. Over 40 events with something for everyone from orchestral classics and contemporary jazz to folk, choral music and reggae, to ensure that music and the arts transform people’s lives and bring the community together. There are opportunities for audiences to listen to live music, take part in workshops, explore the summer exhibitions and the Suffolk landscape, and enjoy family-focused activities.

The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and conductor Thomas Søndergård open the celebrations with Elgar's Cello Concerto (with Maximillian Hornung) and Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5. Other concerts include the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestra and conductor Jonathan Sells [see my recent interview with him] in Handel, Bach and Purcell, Simon Over and Sinfonia Smith Square in Beethoven's Symphony No. 7 and the Cello Concerto by the Hungarian Jewish cellist and composer Pál Hermann who died after being interned in 1944. 

Peter Whelan conducts the Irish Baroque Orchestra in Handel's Alexander's Feast (which they also perform at the BBC Proms). The Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir (who are also visiting the Proms) celebrate Arvo Pärt’s 90th birthday, whilst  Stile Antico makes its Snape Maltings debut.  

Other performers include Britten Sinfonia, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Jess Gillam and the BBC Concert Orchestra, the BBC Big Band, and Flowers Band, 2024 National Brass Band Champions of Great Britain. There are recitals from pianist Benjamin Grosvenor in Schumann and Mussorgsky and pianist Imogen Cooper in Beethoven.

There are family concerts with YolanDa Brown and her band, plus the musical story of Blown Away with Concerteenies for an introduction to music. Celebrate the talents of Aldeburgh Young Musicians, and for BPA’s youngest audiences, try the Mini Music Makers sessions. There is a chance to celebrate Aldeburgh Young Musicians, and Mini Music Makers sessions for youngest audience members.

You can join in the Aldeburgh Carnival and the animated performers of The Alehouse Sessions, plus music and mindfulness wellbeing workshops with Quietnote, or head to The Red House on a tour to pore over the extensive art collection and see behind the scenes. There are tranquil boat trips on the River Alde, the Sunday Breakfast Club with live DJ, and the Summer Contemporary art exhibition.

Full details from the Britten Pears Arts website.

A trio of concerts at this year’s Aldeburgh Festival highlights the diversity of music to be found on the Suffolk coast.

Edward Gardner & Royal Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra - Aldeburgh Festival (Photo: Britten Pears Arts)

Daniel Kidane: Sirens, Mark-Anthony Turnage: Refugee, Nielsen: Symphony No.4; Allan Clayton, Royal Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra, cond. Edward Gardner; Snape Maltings Concert Hall, Suffolk 

Alex Tay, Mingdu Li, Liucilė Vilimaitė, Hy-Khang Dang, Sam Rudd-Jones, Jasper Eaglesfield, Helen Grime, Mark-Anthony Turnage, Colin Matthews, Goehr, Saariaho; Britten Pears Contemporary Ensemble, cond. Jonathan Berman/Claudia Fuller; Britten Studio, Snape Maltings, Suffolk  

Purcell: King Arthur; Gabrieli Consort & Players, dir. Paul McCreesh; Snape Maltings Concert Hall, Suffolk  
Reviewed by Tony Cooper: 19-20 June 2025

The concert performance of Purcell’s King Arthur by the Gabrieli Consort and Players would take some beating. 

The opening concert of my first Aldeburgh Festival excursion this year featured a storming and high-energy work (faster than an F1 car!) entitled Sirens by Daniel Kidane, born to a Russian mother and an Eritrean father in 1986.  

For sure, an energetic and appealing composer, Kidane harbours bright and original ideas and I well remember (and favoured) his orchestral work Awake premièred by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sakari Oramo, when attending the Last Night of the Proms in 2019.  

A frenetic and tasteful opener to the Royal Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra’s concert in Snape Maltings as part of the 76th Aldeburgh Festival, Kidane’s Sirens, flamboyantly conducted by Edward Gardner, proved an atmospheric, eclectic and jazz-inspired piece capturing so well the sounds and energy of Manchester’s nightlife by incorporating elements of various musical genres from jungle to dubstep spiced up and mixed with an R&B cocktail for good measure. 

Helping so much the musical landscape and feel to the piece was Kidane employment of bowed crotales to create a sustained smooth ethereal sound harbouring rich overtones while the harmonies of the work become more intense and dissonant towards the final bars.  

Purcell: King Arthur - Gabrieli Consort & Players, Paul McCreesh - Aldeburgh Festival (Photo: Britten Pears Arts)

One of the four featured artists at this year’s festival, Kidane (a name to be reckoned with!) keeps good company with the likes of tenor Allan Clayton, composer Helen Grime and violinist Leila Josefowicz. 

The opening work of the Aldeburgh Festival’s 76th edition fell to Colin Matthews’ A Visit to Friends, the composer’s first foray into opera.

Colin Matthews: A Visit to Friends - Lotte Betts-Dean, Marcus Farnsworth - Aldeburgh Festival (Photo: Richard Hubert Smith)

Colin Matthews: A Visit to Friends; Lotte Betts-Dean, Susanna Hurrell, Marcus Farnsworth, Edward Hawkins, Gary Matthewman, director Rachael Hewer, Aurora Orchestra, conductor Jessica Cottis; Snape Maltings Concert Hall, Aldeburgh Festival
Reviewed by Tony Cooper, 14 June 2025

An ‘opera-within-an-opera’, Colin Matthews’ A Visit to Friends draws on Anton Chekhov’s intriguing short story of the same name published in 1898 and William Boyd’s Chekhovian play, Longing 

Over the past few years, the Aldeburgh Festival has ‘opened’ with a chamber opera and one that holds its memory for me is The Hunting Gun by Austrian composer, Thomas Larcher, seen in 2019 [see Tony's review]. His first foray into opera. Based on the novella of the same name by Japanese writer, Yasushi Inoue, the opera explores themes of love, betrayal and death telling the story of a secret love affair through the letters of three people. 

Opening Aldeburgh’s 76th edition, Colin Matthews’ new chamber opera, A Visit to Friends, Matthews’ first foray into opera, too, while the librettist novelist/playwright, William Boyd, follows suit delivering a striking and appealing libretto drawing on his Chekhovian play Longing but, more importantly, Chekhov’s short story, A Visit to Friends, written in 1898, almost as a study for The Cherry Orchard (Chekhov’s last play of 1903) which he was hesitant in publishing because its central character, he felt, was too autobiographical. [Read more in Robert's interview with Colin and William, 'A terrific sense of collaboration']

Colin Matthews: A Visit to Friends - Susanna Hurrell, Gary Matthewman - Aldeburgh Festival (Photo: Richard Hubert Smith)

Comprising four scenes from a lost ‘opera’ which has been rediscovered in a Moscow archive with no composer’s name attached, the rehearsals of A Visit to Friends involve three people - a couple of dreamy, determined and hopeful young women ‘head-over-heels’ in love with the same ‘dithering’ man who cannot commit himself. A Moscow lawyer, to boot, the girls dream and live in hope that he’ll help them resolve their financial troubles.  

A Visit to Friends: a new opera by Colin Matthews, residencies from Allan Clayton, Helen Grime, Daniel Kidane and Leila Josefowicz at the 2025 Aldeburgh Festival

Colin Matthews

Whilst most people are still frantically planning for Christmas, the good folk at Britten Pears Arts are thinking much further ahead and have announced the highlights of the 2025 Aldeburgh Festival which runs from 13 to 29 June 2025.

The Festival opens with the world premiere of Colin Matthews’ new opera A Visit to Friends, with a libretto by William Boyd. An opera about love. Or, more accurately, about love’s frustrations. Drawing on Anton Chekhov’s short story and William Boyd’s Chekhovian play LONGING, A Visit to Friends is, beguilingly, an opera within an opera, with music strongly influenced by Scriabin. Additionally, there will be a reading of Chekhov’s short story that inspired the opera in the enchanting woodland setting of Thorington Theatre.

Colin Matthews' links to the festival go back to the 1970s when he worked at Aldeburgh with Benjamin Britten and Imogen Holst, and he was was Chair of the Britten Estate for many years, and is Joint President of Britten-Pears Arts. Other Colin Matthews' works in this festival include String Quartet No. 6 with the Gildas Quartet, and Paraphrases written for featured artist Leila Josefowicz alongside brothers Paul and Huw Watkins, plus a new orchestration of Debussy’s Images (Book 2) performed in the final concert of the 2025 Aldeburgh Festival by the London Symphony Orchestra and Sir Antonio Pappano.

Four featured artists – tenor Allan Clayton, violinist Leila Josefowicz, and composers Helen Grime and Daniel Kidane – are at the heart of this year’s programme. 

Clayton joins the Knussen Chamber Orchestra and conductor Ryan Wigglesworth to perform Clayton’s favourite Britten song cycle - Nocturne, and with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Sakari Oramo he performs Britten's Our Hunting Fathers, and with Antonio Pappano at the piano he performs Britten's Seven Sonnets of Michaelangelo plus Vaughan Williams’ On Wenlock Edge with members of the LSO. With Edward Gardner and the Royal Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra he performs Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Refugee - written for him - with texts by Emily Dickinson, Benjamin Zephaniah, W.H. Auden and Brian Bilston. The Dunedin Consort and Clayton combine new and old in a programme including the first performance of a Britten Pears Arts commission by Tom Coult based on the text of the Lamentations of Jeremiah.

Helen Grime's Festival residency offers a chance to hear a wide range of work including her string quartets from the Heath and Fibonacci Quartets, her Violin Concerto from Leila Josefowicz and the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Sakari Oramo, and i written for Knussen’s 60th birthday in 2012, heard next year again from the BBC SO and Oramo. Grime's new song cycle for soprano and orchestra Folk, which draws on the folklore of the Isle of Man, was written for soprano Claire Booth – who had the idea for the piece - and she performs it with the Knussen Chamber Orchestra and conductor Ryan Wigglesworth. Other Grime works in the festival include her Missa Brevis at the Festival Service and her cello solo, Harp of North inspired by lines from Walter Scott’s folk-inflected poem The Lady of the Lake.

Daniel Kidane's orchestral work Sirens, a collaboration with Zimbabwean writer and poet Zodwa Nyoni, is performed by Edward Gardner and the Royal Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra, his work for the Last Night of the Proms in 2019, Awake, is performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Sakari Oramo, Royal College of Music Symphony Orchestra and Kirill Karabits are joined by YCAT artist, Sphinx Prize winner and Classic FM Rising Star Nathan Amaral to perform Kidane’s violin concerto Aloud. Tenor Nick Pritchard and pianist Ian Tindale perform Kidane’s Songs of Illumination, pianist Mishka Rushdie Momen performs Kidane’s Three Etudes inspired by a Kandinsky painting, Carducci Quartet gives the first performance of Daniel Kidane’s new String Quartet – a Britten Pears Arts Commission, BBC Singers and Sofi Jeannin perform his lockdown piece The Song Thrush and the Mountain Ash, with text set by Simon Armitage, Alisa Weilerstein’s solo cello recital includes Daniel Kidane’s Sarabande Parts 1 – 3, and the Festival Service includes his Christus factus est.

Leila Josefowicz makes her Aldeburgh Festival and Snape Maltings debut, and she performs Helen Grime's Violin Concerto, and is joined by brothers Huw and Paul Watkins, for a chamber concert that includes the world premiere of Colin Matthews' Paraphrases, written especially for her, plus The Psychology of Performance where Leila Josefowicz leads a fascinating study of topics such as stage anxiety, interpretation from a non-musical point of view, and other matters to do with performance.

Full details from the festival website, and the festival brochure is also available online.

Spring is coming to Snape, with Britten Pears Arts announcing its Spring season

Aldeburgh Young Musicians

Spring is coming to Snape, with Britten Pears Arts announcing its Spring season, with visitors including Aurora Orchestra and English Touring Opera, Easter celebrations and lunchtime concerts from Britten Pears Young Artist Programme.

There is a weekend in May devoted to celebrating Aurora Orchestra's 20th birthday, with Saint-Saens' Carnival of the Animals presented with renowned physical-theatre-makers Frantic Assembly alongside Richard Ayres’ riotous new work Dr Frompou’s Anatomical Study of an Orchestra, and there is also an immersive presentation of the Saint-Saens aimed at Early Years, plus Nicholas Collon conducts Aurora Orchestra in Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde with mezzo-soprano Alice Coote and tenor Andrew Staples.  Whilst English Touring Opera will be bringing their new production of Bellini's not-inspired-by-Shakespeare The Capulets & The Montagues.

Cantatas, orchestral and choral music by JS Bach is being presented at Blythburgh Church for Eastertide, with Ben Parry conducting the Britten Pears Chamber Choir, soloists who are alumni of the Britten Pears Young Artist Programme, and the Suffolk Ensemble.  Whilst there is Easter-themed family fun at the Red House and at Snape Maltings.

Every Friday from late January to mid-April, Britten Pears Arts presents twelve Friday Lunchtime Concerts at 12pm. The majority take place in the historic Aldeburgh Jubilee Hall, with one each taking place at Snape Maltings and Orford Church. The series features performances by young ensembles in the 2024-25 Britten Pears Young Artist Programme as part of their residencies in Snape and Aldeburgh. 

And there is more to explore when it comes to residencies at Snape, because artists taking part in Britten Pears Arts Residencies offer a look behind the scenes and experience of work-in-progress as part of Open Sessions. Artists participating in these are mother-and-daughter Naomi Burrell (violinist and composer) and Margareta Burrell (composer), a collaboration between Brìghde Chaimbeul and Martin Green centred on the Scottish smallpipes that merges traditional acoustics with electronic systems into a single sonic entity, Hannah Catherine Jones exploring theremin, waterphone, and voice, and choreographer and composer Dickson Mbi collaborating with singer/songwriter Nicki Wells and cellist Gabriella Swallow.

Aldeburgh Young Musicians (AYM) which offers creative and collaborative musical training for promising young musicians aged 10-18, is offering an all-day open house and a taster morning, for those interested in joining.

At the Red House, curated by Paul Edmondson, Spiritual Britten explores the spiritual aspects of his life and music.

Full details from the Britten Pears Arts website.

The 75th edition of the Aldeburgh Festival rounded off with a rare visit to East Anglia of the celebrated Hallé Orchestra.

Schoenberg: Pierrot Lunaire - Claire Booth, the Nash Ensemble - Aldeburgh Festival (Photo: Marcus Roth, (c) Britten Pears Arts)

Schoenberg: Pierrot lunaire, Beethoven, Julian Anderson, Judith Weir, Mozart; Claire Booth, The Nash Ensemble, Martyn Brabbins; Aldeburgh Festival at Britten Studio
Britten: Curlew River; Ian Bostridge, Duncan Rock, Peter Brathwaite, Willard White, Matthew Jones, Deborah Warner, Audrey Hyland; Aldeburgh Festival at Blythburgh Church
Britten: Suite from Death in Venice, Mahler: Symphony No. 5; The Hallé, cond. Sir Mark Elder; Aldeburgh Festival
Reviewed by Tony Cooper (25 June 2024)

This year’s Aldeburgh Festival has reached new limits with a roster of excellent concerts and recitals not least by the tasteful musical feast served up for the last weekend. 

A cycle of 50 poems, Pierrot lunaire was published in 1884 by Belgian author, Albert Giraud (born Emile Albert Kayenbergh in Leuven in 1860) closely associated with the Symbolist Movement who wrote poems in French. The protagonist of the cycle, Pierrot - the moonstruck and fantastical clown who wears a mask to hide one’s true feelings - is the well-loved comic servant and ‘outsider’ of the Italian Commedia dell’Arte theatrical tradition. Early 19th century Romantics, such as Théophile Gautier, were drawn to him by his Chaplinesque pluckiness and pathos.  

Therefore, remarkable in many respects, Giraud’s collection is among the most densely and imaginatively sustained works in the ‘Pierrot’ canon which attracted the attention of an unusually high number of composers but it’s Schoenberg’s setting that’s the most renowned and widely considered one of the landmark masterpieces of 20th-century music. Although the composition is atonal, it’s not written in the twelve-tone technique that Schoenberg developed (and favoured) in his later years. 

The commission came from Albertine Zehme, a chanteuse married to a Leipzig lawyer, asking Schoenberg to set a lecture text to music. Completely free in the selection of poems, his choice was, of course, the French cycle of poems of Pierrot lunaire by Giraud translated by Otto Erich Hartleben. Selecting 21 poems from the cycle, Schoenberg duly divided them into three distinctive groups: in the first (Drunk on the Moon, Colombine, The Dandy, A Pale Washerwoman, Valse de Chopin, Madonna, The Sick Moon Pierrot) Pierrot sings of love, sex and religion; in the second (Night, Prayer to Pierrot, Robbery, Red Mass, Gallows Song, Beheading, The Crosses) he sings of violence, crime and blasphemy; in the third (Homesickness, Foul Play, Parody, The Spot on the Moon, Serenade, Journey Home, O Ancient Fragrance) Pierrot dreams of returning home to Bergamo with his past haunting him. 

At the work’s première in 1912, the ensemble comprised Albertine Zehme (voice) with Hans W. de Vries (flute), Karl Essberger (clarinet), Jakob Malinjak (violin), Hans Kindler (cello) and Eduard Steuermann (piano). According to Anton Webern, the première was a great success for performers and Schoenberg but received a bad press although most of the audience, fascinated by the new sounds, responded reasonably well to the performance overall.  

Britten: Curlew River - Aldeburgh Festival (Photo: Marcus Roth, (c) Britten Pears Arts)

But Pierrot lunaire at the Rudolfinum, Prague, on 24 February 1913, caused uproar and mayhem with the audience becoming one of Schoenberg’s most frightening and traumatic experiences which he remembered for the rest of his life, leading him to demand guarantees for trouble-free performances at further ‘Pierrot’ concerts. The première of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring performed by Diaghilev's Ballets Russes at the Theatre du Champs-Élysées, Paris, appeared two months after Schoenberg’s Pierrot lunaire, widely considered the most notorious scandal in the history of music, mirrors the same scenario. 

Thankfully, no one had angst or anger etched into their faces at the Aldeburgh Festival in such a brilliant and effortless performance delivered by Claire Booth with the performance nicely sandwiched between Thursday’s Solstice (20 June) and Saturday’s Full Moon (22 June) and coinciding, too, with the anniversary of Peter Pears’ birthday. Heard in the intimacy and comfort of the Britten Studio (ideal for works such as Pierrot lunaire) the players of The Nash Ensemble - Philippa Davies (flute), Richard Hosford (clarinet), Benjamin Nabarro (violin), Lars Anders Tomter (viola), Adrian Brendel (cello) and Alasdair Beatson (piano) - were found on top form. Are they ever off it? 

Time remembered: the 75th edition of the Aldeburgh Festival lovingly recreates the opening night of 1948 Festival

Robin Haigh: LUCK - Matilda Lloyd, Britten Sinfonia, Jessica Cottis - Aldeburgh Festival at Snape Maltings, 2024 (Photo: Angus Cooke)

Purcell: Chaconny in G minor, Handel: Organ Concerto in D minor, Op.7, No.4, Robin Haigh: LUCK, Britten: Saint Nicolas; Nick Pritchard, Matilda Lloyd, Katherine Dienes-Williams; Britten Sinfonia, Choristers of St Edmundsbury Cathedral, Britten Pears Chorus, cond. Jessica Cottis; Aldeburgh Festival at Snape Maltings
Reviewed by Tony Cooper, 15 June 2024

For its 75th birthday celebrations, the Aldeburgh Festival recreates the festival's very opening concert from 1948, with one modern twist

The first concert of the Aldeburgh Festival took place in Aldeburgh parish church dedicated to SS Peter and Paul on 15 June 1948 featuring an attractive programme comprising Purcell’s Chaconny in G minor and Handel’s Organ Concerto in D minor paired with Martin Shaw’s God’s Grandeur and Britten’s cantata, Saint Nicolas. For this significant 75th festival, the concert was recreated on 15 June 2024 at Snape Maltings with Shaw’s work replaced by Robin Haigh’s LUCK, a concerto for trumpet and orchestra written for Matilda Lloyd. [Read Robin's article about writing the work]

Appropriately, the opening work of the first concert of the Aldeburgh Festival in 1948 fell to the well-loved 17th-century English-born composer, Henry Purcell, one of Benjamin Britten’s major musical influences. Therefore, in Purcell’s Chaconny in G minor - a short, sharp, five-minute piece - it provided a nice curtain-raiser to an agreeable and entertaining concert (I should imagine, one of the hottest tickets of the festival) immaculately, crisply and evenly played by the strings of the Britten Sinfonia conducted with great flair and enthusiasm by Australian-British conductor, Jessica Cottis, currently artistic director and chief conductor of the Canberra Symphony Orchestra. The piece was probably composed around 1680 while Purcell was employed by King Charles II and nearly a decade before the composer turned his attention almost exclusively to the theatre after the accession of William III and Queen Mary in 1689. 

Handel: Organ Concerto - Katherine Dienes-Williams, Britten Sinfonia, Jessica Cottis - Aldeburgh Festival at Snape Maltings, 2024 (Photo: Angus Cooke)

Summer at Snape, Britten Pears Arts' series of events at Snape returns for 2024

Summer at Snape, Britten Pears Arts' series of events at Snape returns for 2024 with 50 events from 26 July to 31 August. 

Visiting orchestras include John Wilson and the Sinfonia of London in Britten and Walton, Simon Over and Southbank Sinfonia in Brahms and Rachmaninoff, Peter Whelan and Irish Baroque Orchestra in a programme of Baroque classics, Antonio Pappano and the London Symphony Orchestra in Elgar and Sibelius, and BBC Concert Orchestra presenting Friday Night is Music Night. 

Visiting artists include violinist Alina Ibragimova and pianist Cédric Tiberghien in Beethoven, Janáček, Enescu, and Barry, pianist Alim Beisembayev - Winner of the Leeds International Piano Competition, soprano Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha and pianist Simon Lepper in Mahler, Wagner, and South African songs, guitarist Milos and pianist Stephen Hough.

Other visitors include the Pasadena Roof Orchestra, the Ukelele Orchestra of Great Britain, Black Dyke Band, United Strings of Europe,  Apollo5 and The Gesualdo Six in a programme exploring music of Gesualdo.

Events include Women’s Stories from the Ancient World is a newly devised sequence of words and music curated by soprano Nardus Williams and renowned classicist Mary Beard with lutenist Elizabeth Kenny, I, Clara, presented by pianist Lucy Parham and actor Harriet Walter, an exploration of the remarkable life of Clara Schumann.

Young artists in the series include Suffolk Youth Orchestra in Britten and Rimsky-Korsakov, Aldeburgh Young Musicians, an artist development programme for musicians aged 10-18, Apollo5 leading Explore Your Voice, a workshop offering singers the chance to enhance their vocal capabilities and engage in group singing, VOICEBOX and soprano Juliet Fraser's Unbound project [see my interview with Juliet], Britten Pears Young Artists present their End of Course Recital and Bandstand at The Maltings, hosted on the Henry Moore Lawn, spotlights local talent from across Suffolk programmed by Britten Pears Arts and young creatives.

Full details from Britten Pears Arts website.

Autumn at Snape and at the Red House

Britten Pears Arts' has just announced its Autumn season. The Britten Weekend, 14-15 October 2023 will feature tenor Allan Clayton, horn player Martin Owen and the Britten Sinfonia in a programme that includes Britten's Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings, plus music by Holst, Bridge and Elgar, and there is also a study morning on Britten's Serenade. Also in the weekend, Julius Drake leads a masterclass on English song with the Britten Pears Young Artists, which is the culmination of a week of masterclasses that the Young Artists will be taking part in, and there is an end of course recital on 15 October.

Ben Vonberg-Clark will be conducting two Scratch Choir days, inviting everyone to participate in explorations of music by Emma Lou Diemer and RVW, plus Britten's A Ceremony of Carols. Baritone Peter Brathwaite and pianist Allyson Devenish will be spending a BPA Residency exploring music that complements visual art, inspired by Peter's Rediscovering Black Portraiture project, and there will be an open session on 20 September.

At the Red House, mezzo soprano Anna Huntley and pianist Lucy Colquhoun will perform an intimate song recital in the Library, celebrating the songs of Britten, Schubert and his influence on the composer and Britten’s contemporaries, whilst  mezzo soprano Lottie Betts-Dean and accordionist Ryan Corbett, a BBC New Generation Artist, present a programme of music spanning centuries from Monteverdi to Kurt Weill and Purcell to Joni Mitchell.

Other events include English Touring Opera bringing their new productions of Monteverdi's The Coronation of Poppea and Rossini's La cenerentola, and family concerts feature Elena Urioste, Tom Poster and London Rhymes.

Full details from the Britten Pears Arts website.

Summer at Snape

Britten Pears Arts' Summer at Snape returns this year with six weeks of events at venues across Snape Maltings and The Red House in Aldeburgh from 24 July to 2 September 2023, including music, dancing, walks & talks, art, food & drink, workshops, free outdoor music. Classical music visitors include Aurora Orchestra, BBC Concert Orchestra, Southbank Sinfonia, the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra, cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason, pianists Benjamin Grosvenor, Christian Blackshaw, Sir Andras Schiff, soprano Danielle de Niese, violinist Hyeyoon Park, guitarist Sean Shibe, flautist Adam Walker, violist Timothy Ridout, Ensemble 360, the Jess Gillam Ensemble, The King’s Singers, Fretwork, Sphinx Virtuosi, Slide Action, and Connaught Brass.

The Aurora Orchestra will be bringing their latest challenging project, performing Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring from memory, whilst pianist Christian Blackshaw will be performing all of Mozart's piano sonatas and fantasias across four concerts. The Gavin Bryars Ensemble will be celebrating the composer's 80th birthday.

The BBC Concert Orchestra, conductor Barry Wordsworth, will give the world premiere of the orchestral version of Peter Dickinson’s Unicorns Suite alongside Lord Berners’ A Wedding Bouquet, Doreen Carwithen’s Men of Sherwood Forest and Elgar’s Enigma Variations. Keri-Lynn Wilson conducts the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra in a programme that combines Beethoven's Eroica Symphony with music by two Ukrainian composers, Yevhen Stankovych and Myroslav Skoryk. The National Youth String Orchestra will be performing music by Britten, Beethoven, Shostakovich arranged Rudolph Barshai and Anna Clyne.

Full details from the Britten Pears Arts website.

Summer at Snape

This year, Summer at Snape returns to Snape Maltings with a month of daily concerts featuring outstanding artists and ensembles from the worlds of classical music, jazz, blues, folk, and pop from 31 July to 31 August, and the Dome Stage returns with 20 free outdoor performances in a special setting by the river from Wednesday – Sunday throughout August.

The hall will be welcoming the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra, conductor Keri-Lynn Wilson, as part of its European and US tour. Barry Wordsworth conducts the BBC Concert Orchestra in a programme that includes Bliss' ballet Checkmate alongside RVW's The Lark Ascending. Other visiting orchestras include the Academy of Ancient Music, the Philharmonia in ballets by Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev, and Sir Simon Rattle and the London Symphony Orchestra in Bruckner. Ben Palmer conducts the Manchester Camerata in a live accompaniment to the Chaplin's film The Kid, whilst the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra is playing an evening of film music.

Other visitors include pianists Katia and Marielle Labèque, Angela Hewitt and Christian Blackshaw who joins the Cuarteto Casals, guitarist Miloš, trumpeter Alison Balsam who joins the Britten Sinfonia, and cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason joins Chineke! Orchestra and conductor Kevin John Edusei for a programme which includes Shostakovich's Cello Concerto. There is also a chance to hear the Emerson Quartet and the Takacs Quartet. 

The jazz and blues programme includes Ayanna Witter-Johnson, the Joe Stilgoe Trio, the Piccadilly Dance Orchestra and many more.

Reaffirming Snape Maltings’ commitment to the development of young artists, the Suffolk Youth Orchestra and conductor David Stowe, return for their annual performance. Suffolk's finest young players will present a wide-ranging programme of Khachaturian, Satie, Dukas, Lili Boulanger, Walton, Copland and Hérold.

Full details from the Snape Maltings website.

41 First performances, 11 first UK performances: 73rd Aldeburgh Festival in June 2022

Oliver Knussen, whose 70th birthday is celebrated at the festival (Photo Mark Allan /BBC)

With the last two festivals cancelled and Tom Coult's new opera Violet (due to be premiered in 2020) still lacking a first performance, the Aldeburgh Festival has announced that the 2022 festival will run for an extra week, from 3 to 26 June 2022. Other contemporary composers at the festival include Bushra El Turk, Gregor Mayrhofer, Ryan Wigglesworth, Oliver Knussen, Mark Simpson, Gavin Higgins, Cheryl Frances-Hoad, Owain Park, Dobrinka Tabakova, Aine Mallon, Judith Weir, Hilary Campbell, Omri Kochavi, Laura Bowler, Liza Lim  and the festival features 41 first performances, 11 first UK performances and 19 Britten Pears Arts commissions - the most significant representation of new music in the history of the Aldeburgh Festival.

Composer Tom Coult and librettist Alice Birch's new opera Violet (a first opera for both) will open the festival. Developed at Snape Maltings as part of its Jerwood Opera Writing Programme, it features a heroine, Violet, whose life of routine changes when time quickens, an hour is lost every day, long-held certainties evaporate and ordered society falls into disarray. Andrew Gourlay conducts the London Sinfonietta, with Elizabeth Atherton, Richard Burkard, Frances Gregor and Andrew Mackenzie Wicks, in a production directed by Jude Christian. Other Tom Coult works at the festival include I Find Planets, setting  tweets from a social media account which every hour announces the discovery of a new planet, performed by the Hermes Experiment, and Coult's piano trio, The Chronophage performed by Trio Mazzolini.

Other contemporary composers at the festival include Bushra El-Turk. Her new work for percussion is given its UK premiere by Vivi Vassileva and the Britten Sinfonia, the Adelphi Quartet performs two of El-Turk's quartets, and Ostina-bush-to for solo piano receives its first UK performance played by Clare Hammond. Vivi Vassileva is also the soloist in Gregor A Mayrhofer's Recycling Concerto with the Britten Sinfonia, conducted by the composer.

Ryan Wigglesworth will be conducting the Knussen Chamber Orchestra in a programme that includes the first public performance of Wigglesworth's Five Waltzes, with Lawrence Power (viola), and Britten's Phaedra with Sophie Bevan (soprano). Oliver Knussen would have been 70 in 2022 and Wigglesworth’s tribute to Oliver Knussen for solo cello will be given its first performance by Anssi Karttunnen, and Wigglesworth also conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra in the first performance of Knussen’s Cleveland Pictures as well as music by Respighi and Mussorgsky and Knussen's Horn Concerto with soloist Martin Owen.

Composer and clarinettist Mark Simpson is joining forces with the Solem Quartet for Simpson's and Mozart's Clarinet Quintets, and Simpson will be joined by friends for his own Geysir and Mozart's Gran Partita. Simpson will join pianist Tom Poster for Simpson's Echoes and Embers, and will feature as clarinettist in Bartok's Contrasts, and Messiaen's Quartet for the End of  Time with Nicola Benedetti (violin), Laura van der Heijden (cello) and Tom Poster (piano).

Gavin Higgins' new cantata The Faerie Bride is premiered by Marta Fontanals-Simmons (mezzo-soprano), Roderick Williams (baritone), BBC National Orchestra of Wales conducted by Martyn Brabbins, and Higgins' string sextet, Ekstasis is premiered by the Piatti Quartet with Sara Roberts (viola) and David Cohen (cello).

Other new music at the festival includes Laura Bowler’s Houses Slide, for soprano Jessica Aszodi and the London Sinfonietta, and the Riot Ensemble in Liza Lim's Extinction events and dawn chorus. Other performers at the festival include Anna Lapwood whose organ recital features her own arrangements of Britten’s Four Sea Interludes and Messiaen’s Vocalise-Etude as well as works by Elgar, Owain Park and Cheryl Frances Hoad. And Lapwood directs the choir of Pembroke College, Cambridge in in performances of music based on plainchant, from composers including Bach, Britten and Dobrinka Tabakova,

The festival is marking HM The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee with a visit to Bury St Edmunds Cathedral for a performance by the ORA Singers directed by Suzi Digby, in music from the 16th and 21st centuries including a new piece by Aine Mallon. The BBC Singers conducted by Owain Park perform a collection of short choral pieces by English composers created to celebrate HM The Queen's coronation in 1953, and also sing Britten’s Sacred and Profane, an anthem by Judith Weir, and world premieres by Hilary Campbell and Britten Pears Young Artist, Omri Kochavi,

Full details from the Britten Pears Arts website.

Britten Pears Arts celebrates Britten's birthday with John Wilson and the Sinfonia of London

Frank Bridge, Benjamin Britten, Ethel Bridge by Unknown photographer
snapshot print NPG x15184 © National Portrait Gallery, London

Britten Pears Arts is celebrating Benjamin Britten's birthday over the weekend of 20-22 November 2021 with a pair of concerts by John Wilson and his Sinfonia of London at Snape Maltings, plus other events at Snape and the Red House.

For their first concert John Wilson and the Sinfonia of London are joined by pianist Pavel Kolesnikov for Britten's Piano Concerto along with the tone poem Mai Dun by Britten's teacher at the Royal College of Music, John Ireland, and RVW's A London Symphony. For their second concert, Wilson and his orchestra are joined by tenor Ian Bostridge for Britten's Nocturne, along with Lament by Britten's teacher and mentor, Frank Bridge, Serenade for Strings by Britten's friend Lennox Berkeley and Ballade for Strings by Arthur Benjamin with whom Britten studied piano at the Royal College of Music.

The Red House will be open on Saturday 20 November, with a display of  manuscripts, diaries, photographs and letters relating to the composers featured in the weekend’s concerts, there is also a study morning relating to the works being performed and on Britten's birthday, 22 November 2021, the Red House presents outdoor performances in the garden of Britten’s A Hymn to St Cecilia throughout the afternoon and a special display in the Archive of items relating to Britten’s birthday and to St Cecilia. There will be a chance to explore the house.  

Further details from Britten Pears Arts website.

Aldeburgh Festival 2022

Aldeburgh Music and Snape Maltings Concert Hall from across the River Alde (Photo Philip Vile)

Britten Pears Arts is giving itself space to catch up and present some of the work which has gone unperformed over the last 18 months, and so it has just been announced that the 2022 Aldeburgh Festival will be extended by a week and will now take place from 3 to 26 June 2022. 

The festival will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Britten Pears Young Artist Programme, founded by Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears to provide high level performance training for the world’s best emerging professional musicians. The latest cohort joined the programme in July 2021 and their 12 months as  Britten Pears Young Artists will culminate in performances at the 2022 Aldeburgh Festival.

Tom Coult and Alice Birch's first opera Violet was due to be premiered at the 2020 Aldeburgh Festival, and the postponed premiere will now take place at the 2022 festival. Developed at Snape Maltings as part of its Jerwood Opera Writing Programme, Violet is set in an isolated community controlled by the regularity of the town clock. Suddenly the clock begins to skip time and an hour is lost – every day. As the hours disappear, long-held hierarchies evaporate and ordered society falls into disarray. Violet is co-commissioned and co-produced by Music Theatre Wales, Britten Pears Arts for the Aldeburgh Festival and Theater Magdeburg.

Festival of New goes online at Snape Maltings

Charlie Grey and Joseph Peach

Snape Maltings' Festival of New was supposed to take place last year, showcasing projects created during Residencies at Snape Maltings.

In the event, the live festival was not able to go ahead, but seven artists and groups managed to to safely complete Residencies at Snape Maltings, whilst a further six have Residencies planned for 2021.

To celebrate and showcase this creativity, the Festival of New will take place online on 27 February 2021. The seven artists who have already undertaken residencies will present video snapshots, experiences and documentaries of the work created, whilst the other six artists and groups will discuss their projects and ambitions ahead of the Residencies later this year.

The festival takes place from 2pm on 27 February 2021. Tickets are free, but you have to book online at the Snape Maltings website.

The seven completed Residences are:

• 

  Letty Stott

  Charlie Grey and Joseph Peach: the Scotland-based folk duo have developed a new podcast where guests will bring a basis: melody, song, idea, chord progression, that over the course of a one-hour episode will be developed into a finished piece of music
• Dom Bouffard: Vengeful Ghost, an immersive new work for electric guitars. Intersecting performance, installation and sound sculpture, the work uses prepared instruments and extended playing techniques in a large-scale surround sound format
• Letty Stott: Ancient Horns, exploring the visual and sonic possibilities of ancient horns to create a sound world for new compositions
• Max Baillie & Vahakn Matossian: experimental music and music rooted in pop-culture, a blend of powerful explorational sound journey and tangible concert experience for the listener with viola, percussion and electronics
• Maz O’Connor: a folksinger who treads new boards as she creates her first piece of music theatre, which tells the true story of Bridget Cleary, a woman who was murdered by her husband in 19th-Century Tipperary because he believed her to be a faery changeling
• Nick Ryan: Working in the historic acoustic laboratory at BT Martlesham Heath, Nick and his collaborators conducted a series of bizarre, wondrous, and technically sophisticated experiments, aiming to measure qualitative perceptual phenomena of listening typically considered to be unquantifiable
• Thick & Tight: a dance duo whose work incorporates mime, drag and cultural reference. After being commissioned by Kings Place for the Noh Reimagined Festival, and with an invitation to train with artists in Noh and Kyogen Theatre in Japan, their Residency explored how these art forms can be incorporated into their own work, and where their practices overlap and diverge.

The remaining artists are Emile Levy, Join the Din, Nadine Benjamin, Shruthi Rajasekar & Reylon Yount, Thabo Mkwananzi and Ulita, whose Residencies will take place later this year.

Full details from the Snape Maltings website.

Five world premieres from the cancelled 2020 Aldeburgh Festival to take place at Snape Maltings this Autumn

Snape Maltings (photo Keiko Oikawa)

As ever, this year's Aldeburgh Festival was due to include a number of world premieres, and Britten Pears Arts has announced that five world premieres which had to be cancelled this Summer are taking place at concerts at Snape Maltings during October, November and December. There will be first performances of new works by Michael Berkeley, Colin Matthews, Mark-Anthony Turnage, Gavin Higgins, plus the posthumous premiere of one of John Taverner's last works. It has also been announced that Tom Coult and Alice Burch's new opera Violet, which was due to be performed at the 2020 Aldeburgh Festival, will receive its premiere in 2021.

Harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani will premiere Michael Berkeley's Insects, a work written for Esfahani, alongside music by Bach at a concert on 18 October. The Nash Ensemble will be joined by soprano Claire Booth and conductor Martyn Brabbins for the premiere of Colin Matthews' Seascapes, settings of words by the English poet Sidney Keyes who died in action during World War II (14/11/2020). Tenor Allan Clayton will be giving the premiere of Mark-Anthony Turnage's new song cycle, Silenced, on 20 November 2020. The work is a Britten Pears Arts commission and was written specially for Clayton. The Piatti Quartet and friends will be premiering Gavin Higgins' sextet Ekstasis on 6 December 2020, alongside Beethoven's String Quartet Op.18 No.1.

John Tavener's La Noche Oscura is scored for oboe, countertenor and strings, and is one of the composer's last works. Oboist Nicholas Daniel, counter tenor Andrew Watts and the Britten Sinfonia will be premiering the work on 13 November 2020. 

Full details from the Snape Maltings website.

Highlights and festival firsts: Aldeburgh Festival 2020 - four artists in residence, a first opera, the War Requiem at Snape and more

Josephine Baker, whose songs are celebrated at the festival by artist-in-residence Julia Bullock

The 2020 Aldeburgh Festival features four artists in residence (two composers and two singers), the world premiere of a new opera, and a couple of festival firsts!

For the first time in over 50 years, the festival will open away from Snape and Aldeburgh, the opening concert is at St Edmundsbury Cathedral to celebrate the 1000th anniversary of the founding of Bury St Edmunds Abbey and the concert features music by two of the artists in residence, Cassandra Miller and Mark-Anthony Turnage, plus a work by Tom Coult whose opera Violet is premiered at the festival and the posthumous premiere of a work by Sir John Tavener.

In another festival first, Britten's 1962 War Requiem will be performed at Snape Maltings with Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla conducting the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and soloists including artist-in-residence Allan Clayton.

Paul Verlaine, Artur Rimbaud: the latter's Les Illuminations
were written whilst the two were in London

The festival has four artists in residence, soprano Julia Bullock, tenor Allan Clayton, composer Cassandra Miller and composer Mark-Anthony Turnage. Julia Bullock will be giving the UK premiere of Perle Noire: Meditations for Joséphine an exploration of the songs of one of my heroines, the chanteuse Josephine Baker, and during her residency she will also explore the music of John Cage and Lukas Foss, as well as singing Britten's Les Illuminations with the BBC Symphony Orchestra [interesting historical pronunciation note: Rimbaud wrote his poems Les Illuminations in London with Verlaine and there is good evidence to believe that the two intended the word to be pronounced with an Engish diphthong, ie. Illumin-AY-tions]. Allan Clayton's residency intertwines with that of Mark-Anthony Turnage as Clayton will be giving the premiere of Turnage's new song cycle, as well as singing English song and exploring the work of Priaulx Rainier (1903-1986), a South-African/British composer whose work was championed by Peter Pears.

Canadian composer Cassandra Miller will be showcasing her new piece Tracery a multi- speaker, split-screen 60-minute installation made with soprano Juliet Fraser as a way to create an intimate space for deep listening, and there will also be a chance to hear her work performed by Fraser and the Bozzini Quartet, as well as the UK premiere of A Large House by Ilan Volkov and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Composer Mark-Anthony Turnage will be celebrating his 60th birthday at the festival. He first encountered the festival when, as a young 20-year-old composer he won the Britten Prize. As well as his song-cycle for Allan Clayton, the festival features Frieze with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Owl Songs and Slide Stride from the Nash Ensemble, and Quartet No.4 'Winter’s Edge' with the Piatti Quartet.

Tom Coult's new opera Violet, with a libretto by playwright Alice Birch, was developed at Snape Maltings as part of the Jerwood Opera Writing Programme. Directed by Rebecca Frecknall, the work is co-commissioned by the festival, Music Theatre Wales and Theater Magdeburg. Tom studied at the University of Manchester with Camden Reeves and Philip Grange and at King’s College, London with George Benjamin. He is currently Visiting Fellow Commoner in the Creative Arts at Trinity College Cambridge.Violet is his first opera.

The full Aldeburgh Festival programme will be announced on 18 December 2020, full details from the Snape Maltings website.