12 28 June 2020 - cloudfront.net
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12 – 28 June 2020
Seventy-third
Aldeburgh Festival
of Music and the Arts
12 – 28 June 2020
Artists in Residence:
Julia Bullock
Allan Clayton
Cassandra Miller
Mark-Anthony Turnage
Festival First-Timers Free Festival Coaches
Never been before? To As part of our work to reduce
encourage new people to give the number of cars parking on
the festival a try, we are offering site, for the 2020 festival
new bookers a limited allocation coaches between Aldeburgh
of £10 tickets for most events in and Snape before and after
the main programme. For more performances will be free. You
information, see p.43. can also take the coach from
Aldeburgh and Snape to events
New Car Share Scheme in Orford, Blythburgh, Bury St
We have teamed up with Edmunds and Ely for a
Liftshare.com to create a digital small charge.
platform to put willing car
sharers in touch. We hope you Reducing
will make the most of the single-use plastic
scheme, make friends and We aim to eliminate single-use
reduce our emissions impact. plastic across Snape Maltings
The platform will launch in the and from 2020 we will no longer
Spring - please see our website be selling plastic bottles. Instead
for more details. you will find water fountains
and easily recycled, resealable
cans of water. Please help by
bringing a refillable bottle.
4 Aldeburgh In 2020, as always, there are many strands and pathways
Festival you can follow through the Aldeburgh Festival. Four
30 Pumphouse and Artists in Residence help shape the feel of the festival.
Beach Stage Soprano Julia Bullock’s three concerts feature
Josephine Baker, American experimental composers and
31 Exhibitions
Britten, while tenor Allan Clayton focuses on Britten
34 The Red House songs. The music of Cassandra Miller and Mark-Anthony
Turnage runs through many programmes and illustrates
36 Shops
the range of composition today.
38 Eat & Stay
The premiere of his first opera, Violet, is one of three
42 Support significant works in the festival by rising star Tom Coult.
43 Booking Clocks, bells and time, all prominent features of Violet,
become threads in themselves, popping up across the
44 Diary
17 days. John Tavener’s music is featured across four
events, including the posthumous world premiere of one
of his last pieces. There is also the music of Britten as
interpreted by an array of different artists, including the
first performance of the War Requiem at Snape Maltings
as part of the festival. His partner Peter Pears is featured
through a film about his life and an exhibition of his art
collection. Pears is also the link to the rarely performed
music of South African composer Priaulx Rainier.
We follow the link from Britten to the great poet TS Eliot,
to whom we devote a day of events. And via Eliot’s
fascination with late Beethoven you will even find a small
thread relating to Beethoven's String Quartet Op.132.
But the joy of the Aldeburgh Festival is that you will find
your own way through it, your own threads and your
own unexpected connections. Or you can simply enjoy
remarkable performances and talks from international
artists and ensembles including Joyce DiDonato, Dame
Janet Baker, Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the Monteverdi
This brochure features a
series of illustrations by Choir, Imogen Cooper, Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla and the
Leonie Bos. Her work is both CBSO, the Hagen Quartet, Ilan Volkov and the BBC
minimal and modernist,
taking influence from
Philharmonic, Tenebrae, and Sir Mark Elder and The Hallé.
traditional printmaking.
Working digitally she uses You will also find masterclasses, walks, talks, exhibitions,
semi-transparent colour films, the programme at The Red House, and a hugely
areas to create shades and
tones by layering them
diverse range of activity taking place at The Pumphouse
with limited colours and and The Beach Stage.
the negative 'white' of the
paper itself. We look forward to welcoming you to the festival in June.
4 Aldeburgh Festival 2020
Introducing Friday 12 June 7.30pm
Cassandra Miller Festival Opening
Known for her ‘bold, kind-hearted’,
Concert
‘profoundly haunting’ and Britten Sinfonia
‘miraculously beautiful’ music, Ian Bostridge tenor
Cassandra Miller is one of the Martin Owen horn
most distinctive living composers. Clare Hammond piano
The Guardian listed her work in Nicholas Daniel oboe
‘The best classical music works Andrew Watts countertenor
of the 21st century’, hailing Miller Doric Quartet
as a ‘master of planting a seed and Ryan Wigglesworth conductor
setting in motion an entrancing Britten Fanfare for St Edmundsbury 2’;
process, then following through Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings 25’;
with the most sumptuous Young Apollo 10’
conviction’. Purcell arr. Wigglesworth Fantasia Z738 5’
Tom Coult My Curves are Not Mad 15’
Cassandra Miller new work (world premiere,
Aldeburgh Festival commission) 3’
Mark-Anthony Turnage Lullaby for Hans 6’
Tavener La Noche Oscura (world premiere) 9’
Elgar Introduction and Allegro 14’
For the first time in more than 50 years the
festival opens away from the Suffolk coast,
celebrating the 1,000th anniversary of Bury St
Edmunds Abbey. Following Britten’s fanfare,
written especially for this magnificent
cathedral, we begin to weave this year’s
musical tapestry with many of the threads to
be picked up across the 17 days. The music of
Artists in Residence Cassandra Miller and
Mark-Anthony Turnage is performed alongside
two of Britten’s most sensuous pieces,
matched by Elgar’s gorgeous piece for strings.
The programme is completed by a further
string orchestra work by Tom Coult – whose
opera we premiere the following night – and
the posthumous world premiere of one of
John Tavener’s final works.
St Edmundsbury Cathedral, Bury St Edmunds
7.30pm (ends approx. 9.45pm)
Tickets £40, £32, £27, £15
21 and under half price
Coach £10 (5.30pm)
Photo © Andrew Parker
Friday 12 – Saturday 13 5
Saturday 13 June 11am Saturday 13 – Saturday 20 June
Nash Ensemble Installation: Tracery
Claire Booth soprano Cassandra Miller and Juliet Fraser music
Martyn Brabbins conductor Stephen Harvey video
Debussy Sonata for flute, viola and harp 18’ Tracery is a new, hour-long sound and video
Knussen Songs Without Voices 11’ installation co-created by composer and
Mark-Anthony Turnage Owl Songs 12’; festival Artist in Residence, Cassandra Miller,
Slide Stride 12’ and singer Juliet Fraser. The piece has been
Colin Matthews Seascapes 13’ (world premiere, developed especially for Snape’s Jerwood
Aldeburgh Festival commission) Kiln Studio with the aim of turning it into an
Ravel Introduction and Allegro 12’ intimate and welcoming space for deep
listening. Miller and Fraser have explored
Artist in Residence Mark-Anthony Turnage's
‘automatic singing’, a repetitive technique
new ensemble song cycle is dedicated to the
combining mimicry and meditation. We hear
memory of his great friend, mentor (and owl
and see multi-layered recordings of Fraser
fanatic) Oliver Knussen, whose own purely
meditating while singing along to what she is
instrumental miniatures are like ghosts of
hearing through her headphones. In addition
unnamed poems, music of characteristic
to the immersive audio-visual presentation,
precision and lyrical elegance. Colin Matthews
headphones allow us to eavesdrop on what
sets words by Sidney Keyes, the English poet
Fraser is hearing: sources from folk music to
who died in action in the Second World War,
Bach; her own vocal experiments; meditation
while music from Debussy and Ravel envelop
instructions. The result is a remarkable
the programme in their cool but sensuous
exploration of a performer’s freedom and
sound worlds.
vulnerability.
Britten Studio, Snape 11am (ends approx. 1pm)
The installation is open daily 13 – 20 June.
Tickets £22, £17, £12 21 and under half price
Coach Free (10am) Jerwood Kiln Studio, Snape 13 June 1–6pm,
14 –20 June 12–7pm
Tickets Free, no ticket required
Photo © Philip Gatward
Introducing
Mark-Anthony
Turnage
One of the most widely performed
composers celebrates his 60th
birthday in June. At the Aldeburgh
Festival, Allan Clayton will give the
world premiere of Silenced, a new
song cycle commissioned by the
festival. Further works featured
include Frieze, Owl Songs and Slide
Stride, and String Quartet No.4
‘Winter’s Edge’.
6
Saturday 13 June 8pm
Violet
Tom Coult music An hour disappears.
Libretto by Alice Birch Each day. Every day.
Cast: Elizabeth Atherton, John Graham-Hall, Like clockwork.
Frances Gregory And she’s never felt more alive.
London Sinfonietta With the townspeople in crisis, can Violet
Andrew Gourlay conductor finally escape?
Sung in English with surtitles Combining the acclaimed talents of playwright
World premiere Alice Birch, known for her powerful female-
centred writing, and rising star composer
Minutes and Seconds and Hours take Tom Coult, this is opera for now and about now.
Centuries to fall into days.
Violet is co-commissioned and co-produced
And yet
by Music Theatre Wales, Aldeburgh Festival
Perhaps
and Theater Magdeburg.
Last night. Last night I thought I felt it quicken.
And I willed it on. Snape Maltings Concert Hall 8pm
(ends approx. 9.30pm, no interval)
In a muddied nightdress, in a country kitchen,
Tickets £40, £32, £27, £15
Violet finally smiles. All these years her
21 and under half price
tired daily routine has been dictated by the
Coach Free (6pm)
inescapable chime of the Clock Tower.
Tick tock. Take your tablets. Tick tock. Pre-performance talk with members
Husband will be home soon. Until the night of the creative team
she feels time quicken. Peter Pears Recital Room, Snape 7pm
Tickets Free but please book
Photo © Lleucu Meinir
Saturday 13 – Sunday 14 7
Saturday 13 June 3pm Sunday 14 June 10.30am
BBC Singers Festival Service
with Choristers of Norwich Cathedral Aldeburgh Voices
Samuel Boden tenor
The opening weekend’s service draws local
Sofi Jeannin conductor
worshippers and festival visitors to the Parish
Britten A Hymn to the Virgin 4’; Church of St Peter and St Paul. This service
A Boy Was Born 30’ is led by Revd Mark Lowther, with guest
Mark-Anthony Turnage Calmo 5’ preacher The Very Revd Nicholas Papadopulos,
Rainier Requiem 23’ Dean of Salisbury Cathedral.
Julian Anderson Sing 8’
Aldeburgh Church 10.30am (ends approx. 12pm)
The BBC Singers and its chief conductor Sofi Free no ticket required
Jeannin perform choral music by composers
with different links to the festival. Britten
welcomes us and sees us off at the end. In Sunday 14 June 3pm
between, Turnage mourns the death of his Doric Quartet
friend Sue Knussen with strikingly still
Britten Three Divertimenti 12’
textures, tinkling bells and the words ‘Give us
Mozart Quartet in B-flat K589 24’
peace’. The music of South African-born
Beethoven Quartet No.15 Op.132 44'
composer Priaulx Rainier is rarely heard today,
but Imogen Holst, Britten and Peter Pears We welcome back the Doric Quartet for two
championed her idiosyncratic works, performances centred on Beethoven’s late
influenced by both modernist angularity and Quartet Op.132. Tomorrow it is interspersed
South African rhythms. Her Requiem was one with the poetry of TS Eliot. Today we hear the
of her first major commissions, written for remarkable five-movement work
Aldeburgh Festival 1956, with Pears the soloist. uninterrupted, its radiant, almost static
We also hear the first performance of an early middle movement entitled ‘Holy song of
work by Julian Anderson. thanksgiving of a convalescent to the Deity’.
Blythburgh Church 3pm (ends approx. 4.45pm) Mozart was even closer to the end of his life
Tickets £30, £26, £20, £12 when he wrote his quartet, while Britten’s
21 and under half price short Divertimenti were written in his early
Coach via Snape £7 (2pm) twenties.
‘Spellbinding’
The Observer on the Doric Quartet at Britten Weekend 2018
Britten Studio, Snape 3pm
(ends approx. 4.45pm)
Tickets £30, £24, £12
Coach Free (2pm)
Info and booking:
snapemaltings.co.uk
01728 687110
8 Aldeburgh Festival 2020
Sunday 14 June 7.30pm Monday 15 - Friday 19 June 2.30pm - 5.30pm
The Hallé and Elder Festival Masterclasses:
Sir Mark Elder conductor The Art of Performing
Britten arr. Steuart Bedford Death in Venice Roderick Williams course director
(Suite) 27’ Christopher Glynn, Julia Faulkner,
Mahler Symphony No.5 68’ Jo Blake (Cave) course tutors
Mark Elder and The Hallé present two Internationally renowned baritone Roderick
remarkable works linked by a film. Part of the Williams and tutors in piano, vocal technique
inspiration for Thomas Mann's 1912 novella and storytelling explore what makes a moving
Death in Venice came from hearing of Mahler's song performance with emerging professional
death while Mann was staying in Venice, and singers and pianists on the Britten–Pears
the Mahler link is central to Visconti's 1971 film, Young Artist Programme.
which uses the fifth symphony's searing Peter Pears Recital Room, Snape 15-19 June
Adagietto throughout. Britten's opera 2.30pm-5.30pm daily
adaptation of the novella evokes a similar Tickets £6
mood but in a very different language. His
shimmering score, heard here as an orchestral
suite, conveys beauty and obsession through Monday 15 June 4pm
its minimal textures, rhythms and soundworld Four Quartets
inspired by his encounter with gamelan music
Text: TS Eliot Four Quartets
in Indonesia.
Music: Beethoven String Quartet Op.132
Snape Maltings Concert Hall 7.30pm
(ends approx. 9.40pm) Doric Quartet
Tickets £40, £32, £27, £15 21 and under half price Robin Brooks and Fiona McAlpine directors
Coach Free (5.30pm) In my end is my beginning.
Beethoven's Op.132 is understood to have
Monday 15 June 11am inspired Eliot's Four Quartets, his great long
Film: Return to form poem on themes of time, aging and
regret. He wrote: ‘There is a sort of heavenly
TS Eliotland […] gaiety about some of Beethoven’s later
Followed by a talk and analysis of TS Eliot’s things which one imagines might come to
poem Four Quartets by Mark Ford oneself as the fruit of reconciliation and relief
after immense suffering; I should like to get
The start of day of events related to TS Eliot,
something of that into verse before I die.’ In
AN Wilson's passionate film is an absorbing
this performance of the Four Quartets, actors
exploration of the life and work of one of the
speak the text as recurring voices, interwoven
great 20th-century poets. Wilson charts the
with the five movements of the Beethoven
poet’s diverse inspirations and the
performed by the Doric Quartet in an
extraordinary writing process that produced
enthralling re-imagining of two extraordinary
poems such as The Lovesong of J Alfred
works of art.
Prufrock, The Waste Land and Four Quartets.
Britten Studio, Snape 4pm (ends approx.
Aldeburgh Cinema 11am, the talk follows the
5.45pm, no interval)
film at 12.15pm (ends approx. 1pm)
Tickets £25, £18, £12 21 and under half price
Tickets £15 21 and under half price
Coach Free (3pm)
Sunday 14 – Monday 15 9
Monday 15 June, 7.30pm
Introducing
Allan Clayton & Allan Clayton
Friends I Tenor Allan Clayton is one of the
Allan Clayton tenor world’s most exciting singers.
Christopher Lowrey countertenor His Aldeburgh Festival residency
Roderick Williams baritone includes the world premiere of a
James Baillieu piano new song cycle by Mark-Anthony
Olivia Jageurs harp Turnage, a focus on Britten songs,
Britten Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo 16’; and the music of the now rarely
Suite for Harp 14’; Canticles IV & V 18’ performed composer Priaulx
Mark-Anthony Turnage Silenced (world Rainier who was championed by
premiere, Aldeburgh Festival commission) 12’ Peter Pears. He also performs
Traditional arr. Britten Folk Song alongside the City of Birmingham
Arrangements (selection) 15’ Symphony Orchestra and a cast
of international soloists in
At the close of an Aldeburgh Festival day Britten's War Requiem.
permeated by the words of TS Eliot, Allan
Clayton gives us a chance to hear two settings
of his poetry, much admired by Britten for ‘the
clarity and security of his language’. The
human toil and spiritual doubts of the Magi
are hauntingly conveyed whilst the
rumination on Narcissus’ destructive beauty is
accompanied by harp, not piano, a poignant
reminder that the ailing composer’s piano-
playing days were then over.
A new cycle written by one festival Artist in
Residence for another is included, alongside
Britten’s florid Italian cycle in praise of love
and his deliciously quirky folksong settings.
Snape Maltings Concert Hall 7.30pm
(ends approx. 9.40pm)
Tickets £30, £22, £18, £12
21 and under half price
Coach Free (5.30pm)
Pre-performance talk with
Mark-Anthony Turnage
Peter Pears Recital Room, Snape 6.30pm
Tickets Free but please book
Photo © Sim Canetty-Clarke
10 Aldeburgh Festival 2020
Tuesday 16 June 11am Tuesday 16 June 3pm
Films: Barrie Gavin Bozzini Quartet
Double-Bill With Juliet Fraser soprano
Introduced by Barrie Gavin Schubert Quartet in A minor D804
‘Rosamunde’ 32’
In The Tenor Man’s Story, made a year before
Cassandra Miller Thanksong (world premiere) 15’;
he died in 1986, Peter Pears speaks to
About Bach 24’
Donald Mitchell about his life, intercut with
Bach arr. Oesterle Chaconne from Partita
illustrations from Britten’s music and his
for solo violin BWV1004 12’
own memorable performances. Barrie Gavin’s
film is both considered and elegiac. A year The Canada-based Bozzinis are renowned for
later, he made another film, The Noble Savage, their brilliant playing of both classical and
about the idiosyncratic composer, arranger experimental music. In Schubert their tone is
and folksong collector Percy Grainger glowing, while Bach’s solo violin movement is
(1882-1961). This extraordinary documentary consoling and melancholy. Their compatriot
evokes beautifully the composer’s fascination Cassandra Miller uses an extract of the Bach as
with the English folk music he was the first to the basis for her piece, which is clearly linked to
collect on cylinder recordings, beginning in its source but also detached and mesmeric.
1906. Miller’s new piece Thanksong is based on the
third movement of Beethoven’s late Quartet
Aldeburgh Cinema 11am (ends approx. 1.15pm)
Op.132. Like Beethoven’s opening, Miller’s piece
Tickets £10 21 and under half price
is quiet, inwardly focused and full of gratitude.
Aldeburgh Church 3pm (ends approx. 5pm)
Tuesday 16 June 2.30pm Tickets £22, £17, £12 21 and under half price
Festival Masterclasses:
The Art of Performing Tuesday 16 June 7.30pm
For more details see p.8
Monteverdi Choir
English Baroque Soloists
Monteverdi Choir
Sir John Eliot Gardiner conductor
Purcell Jehova, quam multi sunt hostes 6’;
Hear my prayer, O Lord 4’
Monteverdi Messa for 4 voices 21’
Carissimi Jephte 24’ Scarlatti Stabat mater 24’
Sir John Eliot Gardiner and his Monteverdi Choir
are renowned for their startling transparency of
texture and vivid vocal colours. These qualities
are brought to the fore in a programme of three
works from 17th- and 18th-century Italy written
for sacred contexts but clearly influenced by
the then new, secular genre of opera.
Snape Maltings Concert Hall 7.30pm
Info and booking: (ends approx. 9.25pm)
Tickets (limited to max. 4 per household)
snapemaltings.co.uk £45, £35, £28, £15 21 and under half price
01728 687110 Coach Free (5.30pm)Monday 15 – Tuesday 16 11
12 Aldeburgh Festival 2020
Wednesday 17 June from 9am Wednesday 17 June 7.30pm
Festival Walk I Tenebrae at
From The Red House to Snape Maltings, Ely Cathedral
along the Sailors’ Path
Nigel Short director
This walk, which celebrates the merging of Tavener Song for Athene 5’; Mother and Child
Snape Maltings and the Britten–Pears 10’; Pater noster 2’; The Lamb 3’; Two hymns to
Foundation, begins at Maggi Hambling’s the Mother of God 7’
Scallop on Aldeburgh beach. We then Russian Orthodox choral music by Golovanov,
visit The Red House Library, before taking the Gretchanninov, Rachmaninov, Chesnokov
Sailors’ Path to Snape Maltings. Walkers will and Glinka 25’
stop for a buffet lunch at the water’s edge at Unsuk Chin Nulla est finis – a prelude to
Blackheath House, with its truly magnificent Spem in alium (UK premiere) 3’
views of the estuary. After tea at Snape Tallis Spem in alium 10’
Maltings, and an optional tour of the derelict
buildings, shuttle buses will bring walkers We return to the awe-inspiring Ely Cathedral
back to Aldeburgh. Walkers can set their own for Tenebrae’s exploration of Catholic splendour
pace on the 6.5 mile route. and Russian Orthodox fervour, centred on the
music and influences of John Tavener. In his
Tickets £22 including lunch and return coach. early career Tavener was fascinated by the
Groups depart Thorpe Rd Car Park at 9.30am, ornate rituals of Catholicism, as exemplified by
10am and 10.30am. Please note car parking Tallis’s spectacular 40-part motet Spem in
charges will apply. alium – preceded here by the UK premiere of
With thanks to Patty and Michael Hopkins Unsuk Chin’s specially-composed prelude – but
in 1977 he joined the Russian Orthodox Church.
The works which followed his conversion,
Informal but organised 10K run to
music of radiant beauty and transcendental
Aldeburgh sets off from Snape Maltings
simplicity, were inspired by the distinctive
at 10am.
sound of Russian Orthodox choral music –
More information and booking will be
warm, tender and, with its remarkable ‘oktavist’
available on the website in February.
sub-bass voice, as awesome as the setting.
Ely Cathedral 7.30pm (ends approx 9.15pm)
Tickets £35, £25, £12 21 and under half price
Wednesday 17 June 2.30pm Coach via Snape £10 (4.45pm)
Festival Masterclasses:
The Art of Performing Thursday 18 June 11am
For more details see p.8
Film: Sir John Tavener
Remembered
John Tavener’s music reflects the life of a
deeply religious man who saw music as a form
of prayer. In this 2013 film, Tom Service traces
the musical and spiritual odyssey of a composer
whose acclaim spread beyond the realm of
music. With footage from 40 years of BBC TV
archive, we hear excerpts from The Protecting
Veil, The Lamb, and his elegiac Song for Athene.
Aldeburgh Cinema 11am (ends approx 12.10pm)
Tickets £8Wednesday 17 – Thursday 18 13
Thursday 18 June 3pm Thursday 18 June 7.30pm
Mozart and Tavener Twilight and Deep Time
Nicholas Daniel oboe Royal Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra
Heath Quartet Ryan Wigglesworth conductor
Bozzini Quartet Rachel Nicholls soprano
Eusebius Quartet
Wagner Good Friday Music from Parsifal 11’
Ruisi Quartet
Harrison Birtwistle Deep Time 30’
Adam Wynter double bass
Wagner arr. Wigglesworth Götterdämmerung
Owen Nicolaou double bass
– A Symphonic Journey for soprano and
Patrick Nolan percussion
orchestra 40’
van Bree Allegro for four quartets 10’
Ryan Wigglesworth curates and conducts a
Mozart Quartet in C major 'Dissonance' 31'
programme of works which seem to stand
Tavener Kaleidoscopes 30’
outside time. The final opera in Wagner’s Ring
Four string quartets sharing a stage is a rich cycle, Twilight of the Gods, heard here in
experience for both eyes and ears. The Wigglesworth’s symphonic arrangement for
programme opens with 19th-century Dutch soprano and orchestra, ends in an apocalyptic
composer Johannes van Bree’s humorous future with the mythical home of the gods,
Allegro for four quartets, which sees melodies Valhalla, going up in flames. Meanwhile
race from one end of the stage to the other Birtwistle evokes a geological timespan,
and back, before the Heath Quartet take burrowing deep towards our planet’s core to
centre stage to perform Mozart’s Quartet in C hear the elemental sounds of continual yet
major. John Tavener’s tribute to his musical volatile change, seemingly without beginning
hero takes the form of a theatrical oboe or end.
concerto, with music scattered around
‘Musical layers of rock grate against
fragments of Mozart melodies. Standing
each other, interrupted by violent
centre stage with four string quartets placed
percussion outbursts and shrill wind
at the points of the compass around him,
sounds – magma and scree, hurled
Nicholas Daniel is at the heart of a work
musically into the air…’ Der Tagesspiegel
originally written for him.
Snape Maltings Concert Hall 7.30pm
‘[Mozart’s] music contains a rapturous
(ends approx. 9.30pm)
beauty and a childlike wonder that can
Tickets £32, £28, £24, £12
only be compared to Hindu and Persian
21 and under half price
miniatures or Coptic ikons.’ John Tavener
Coach Free (5.30pm)
Britten Studio, Snape 3pm
Pre-performance talk
(ends approx. 4.40pm, no interval)
with Sir Harrison Birtwistle
Tickets £20, £16, £12
Peter Pears Recital Room, Snape 6.30pm
21 and under half price
Tickets Free but please book
Coach Free (2pm)
Thursday 18 June 2.30pm
Festival Masterclasses:
The Art of Performing
For more details see p.814 Aldeburgh Festival 2020
Friday 19 June 11am Friday 19 June 4pm
Britten-Pears Alumni I Bevan and
Britten-Pears Ensemble Wigglesworth
Jessica Cottis conductor
Sophie Bevan soprano
Mark-Anthony Turnage A Furious Fanfare 1’ Ryan Wigglesworth piano
Takemitsu Rain Coming 10’
Purcell arr. Wigglesworth Lord What is Man 6’
Kaija Saariaho Lichtbogen 17’
Fauré Songs from La Bonne Chanson 10’
Harrison Birtwistle Carmen Arcadiae
Ryan Wigglesworth Till Dawning 21’
Mechanicae Perpetuum 12’
Nadia Boulanger Priere 5’
and world premieres of new works by
Messiaen Poèmes pour mi 28’
Blair Boyd, Laura Shipsey, Theo Chandler,
Alex Woolf, Alex Paxton and Euchar Gravina The beauty of nature, joys of marriage and
love both earthly and divine lie at the heart of
Last year Mark-Anthony Turnage and
Messiaen’s song cycle. A gift for his new wife,
conductor Jessica Cottis joined Colin
its themes resonate with Fauré’s songs,
Matthews as teachers on the internationally
luxuriant settings of Verlaine’s love poetry for
renowned Britten-Pears Contemporary
his young fiancée. Sophie Bevan and
Composition and Performance course. This
composer-pianist Ryan Wigglesworth also
year all course participants return to present
perform Wigglesworth’s cycle based on the
the world premieres by exciting young
intricate devotional works of 17th-century
composers developed on the course. The
clergyman-poet George Herbert, and start
programme also includes Turnage's own
with Purcell’s exquisite hymn, its rapturous
opener and music by Birtwistle, Saariaho and
‘alleluias’ seeming to set the tone for all that
Takemitsu.
is to come.
Britten Studio, Snape 11am
Britten Studio, Snape 4pm
(ends approx. 1.15pm)
(ends approx. 5.45pm)
Tickets £16, £13 21 and under half price
Tickets £25, £18, £12 21 and under half price
Coach Free (10am)
Coach Free (3pm)
Friday 19 June 2.30pm
Festival Masterclasses:
The Art of Performing
For more details see p.8
Info and booking:
snapemaltings.co.uk
01728 687110Friday 19 – Saturday 20 15
Friday 19 June 7.30pm Saturday 20 June 2.30pm
BBC Philharmonic Piatti Quartet
Orchestra I & Friends
Daniel Pioro violin Piatti Quartet
Steven Osborne piano Rosalind Ventris viola
Ilan Volkov conductor Jonathan Aasgaard cello
Ravel orch. Grainger La vallée des cloches 6’ Mark-Anthony Turnage Returning 11’
Britten Piano Concerto 33’ Gavin Higgins Ekstasis (world premiere) 25’
Tom Coult Violin Concerto: Pleasure Garden 20’ Tchaikovsky Souvenir de Florence 36’
Respighi Pines of Rome 23’
We hear contrasting string sextets:
There's a glossy, outdoorsy sheen to the Ravel, Tchaikovsky's was written in and about
Britten and Respighi. The Australian-American Florence but is nonetheless unmistakably
composer-arranger Percy Grainger’s brilliant Russian, with Slavic folk melodies never far
orchestration of Ravel’s piano piece uses tuned from the surface. Meanwhile Turnage creates
percussion both to evoke the ‘valley of bells’ a serene stillness in his beautifully lyrical
and to highlight Ravel’s gorgeous Javanese short piece. Gavin Higgins’ music has been
gamelan-inspired textures. Britten’s dazzlingly described as having ‘streaks of menace as well
virtuosic piano concerto is irresistable in the as mischief’. The composer of the Royal Opera
hands of Steven Osborne, one of the work’s House commission A Monstrous Child writes
great champions. Respighi’s programmatic vibrant, highly characterised works that bring
piece feels like a score to an imagined film, a strong sense of theatre to the concert hall.
while Tom Coult’s new concerto, written for
Aldeburgh Church 2.30pm
Daniel Pioro and receiving its second
(ends approx. 4.15pm)
performance tonight, is similarly inspired by an
Tickets £22, £17, £12 21 and under half price
outdoor space.
Snape Maltings Concert Hall 7.30pm
(ends approx. 9.30pm) Saturday 20 June 4.30pm & 5.45pm
Tickets £38, £32, £25, £12 21 and under half price
Coach Free (5.30pm)
Five Flower Songs
Aldeburgh Voices
With a talk by Penny Brice, Gardener at
Saturday 20 June 11am
The Red House
Masterclass Join Aldeburgh Voices in Britten's garden at
Final Recital The Red House for a promenade concert of his
Singers and pianists from the 1950 choral piece, dedicated to two botanists.
Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme The songs are interspersed with talks by
The Red House gardener Penny Brice on the
Throughout the week course participants have flora and fauna of the poetry.
examined texts and storytelling in-depth and
The Red House Garden, Aldeburgh 4.30pm,
this recital is the culmination of their work.
repeated 5.45pm
Britten Studio, Snape 11am Tickets £10 21 and under half price
(ends approx. 12.30pm)
Tickets £10 21 and under half price18 Aldeburgh Festival 2020
Saturday 20 June 7pm Saturday 20 June 10pm
BBC Philharmonic Bozzini Quartet Late
Orchestra II Cage String Quartet in Four Parts 20’
Ana Sokolovic Commedia dell’arte
Ilan Volkov conductor
(UK premiere) 15’
Britten A Time There Was 15’ Cassandra Miller Warblework 15’
Cassandra Miller A Large House
John Cage’s tantalisingly melodic 1950 piece
(UK Premiere) 27’
is a fascinating ‘halfway house’ between his
Grainger A Lincolnshire Posy 18’
earlier work and his later practice of using
Janáček Sinfonietta 24’
chance procedures to generate and organise
Percy Grainger was an early pioneer in musical material. Ana Sokolovic’s Commedia
collecting and transcribing folk songs and his dell’arte uses characters from the 16th-
suite based on fieldwork in Lincolnshire is century Italian artform as inspiration for a
justly considered his masterpiece. Also based piece which is by turns exuberant, sarcastic,
on English folk tunes and dedicated to touching and hilariously funny. Cassandra
Grainger, Britten’s 1975 suite was one of his last Miller’s Warblework, with its setting of a local
works, its melancholy end fading to silence. folk song called ‘Leaving’ and its dreamy
The piece is accompanied by artist Julian transcriptions of Canadian birdsong, is a
Simmons' film, Britten Fields. In a contrasting moving tribute to the remote island community
mood, Janáček’s Moravian melodies and she left to study composition in Europe.
rhythms contribute to one of the 20th
Britten Studio, Snape 10pm
century’s most uplifting orchestral works.
(ends approx. 11pm, no interval)
The programme is punctuated by what feels
Tickets £18, £15, £12
like a disruption in time and space, with an
unending journey into the core of something
– ourselves? our planet? – undertaken in the
UK premiere of Cassandra Miller’s monolithic
A Large House.
Snape Maltings Concert Hall 7pm
(ends approx. 9.10pm)
Tickets £38, £32, £25, £12
21 and under half price
Coach Free (5.30pm)
Pre-performance talk with Cassandra Miller
Peter Pears Recital Room, Snape 6pm
Tickets Free but please book
Info and booking:
snapemaltings.co.uk
01728 687110Saturday 20 – Sunday 21 19
Sunday 21 June 11am Sunday 21 June 7pm
Piatti Quartet War Requiem
Beethoven Grosse Fuge 15’ City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Haydn Quartet Op.20 No.4 26’ City of Birmingham Chorus and Youth Chorus
Mark-Anthony Turnage String Quartet No.4 Tatiana Pavlovskaya soprano
‘Winter’s Edge’ 20’ Allan Clayton tenor
Beethoven String Quartet Op.18 No.1 28’ Florian Boesch baritone
Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla conductor
The Piatti Quartet regularly work with leading
British composers and the centrepiece of their Britten War Requiem 90’
second concert is a work they commissioned
For the first time Britten’s plea for peace and
from Turnage. Bookending it, we hear works
monument to the suffering of war is
from Haydn and Beethoven which outline the
performed at Snape Maltings as part of the
development of the string quartet in the
Aldeburgh Festival. Britten’s life-long pacifism
Classical period, from early wit and energy, to
had been controversial in earlier decades, but
grand contrasts, and finally Beethoven's Grosse
by the early sixties his expression of deeply-
Fuge which still feels ahead of its time today.
held humanitarian and internationalist beliefs
Orford Church 11am (ends approx. 12.50pm) provided solace and hope for a world still
Tickets £20, £16, £10 21 and under half price recovering from WWII’s unprecedented
Coach via Snape £6 (10am) violence. We are delighted to welcome Mirga
Gražinytė-Tyla back to the festival to conduct
an international cast of soloists and the CBSO.
Sunday 21 June 3pm
Snape Maltings Concert Hall 7pm
EXAUDI (ends approx. 8.40pm, no interval)
James Weeks director Tickets (limited to max. 4 per household)
£55, £41, £32, £15 21 and under half price
Joanna Baillie Harmonizing 13’ Coach Free (5pm)
Billings Wake Ev’ry Breath; Creation 6’
Cage Hymns and Variations 28’ Pre-performance talk with Dr Lucy Walker
Cassandra Miller Guide 13’ Britten Studio, Snape 6pm
and traditional American folk hymns Tickets Free but please book
The brilliant singers of EXAUDI perform music
by North American pioneers and experimenters
alongside the folk hymns which inspired them.
Cage creates a set of variations on an old hymn
tune where the original material is not
developed, but rather goes missing in different
ways. Cassandra Miller’s Guide is a glorious
eight-voice smudge of a southern Baptist
hymn, ‘Guide me, O thou great Jehovah’, sung
in folk style.
Blythburgh Church 3pm
(ends approx. 4.15pm, no interval)
Tickets £26, £22, £16, £12 21 and under half price
Coach via Snape £7 (2pm)20 Aldeburgh Festival 2020
Monday 22 June 11am Monday 22 June 3pm
Film: Janet Baker Emergence: Emily
In Her Own Words Nadine Benjamin soprano
Nicole Panizza piano
Introduced by film-maker John Bridcut
With poet and playwright Caroline Bird
In her first documentary for more than 35
Including music by Copland, Glickman,
years, the great British classical singer Dame
Julianna Hall, Luigi Zaninelli, Ella Jarman-Pinto
Janet Baker talks about her career and her life.
With excerpts of her greatest stage roles and Singer and literary scholar/pianist present a
her appearances in the concert hall and dramatised song recital devoted to the work of
recording studio, she looks back at the just one poet. Emily Dickinson’s concise and
excitements and pitfalls of public performance. compelling poems rank as some of the finest in
A revealing, moving film about a great artist. the English language. However, much of her
Aldeburgh Cinema 11am (ends approx. 12.40pm) life remains mysterious, misunderstood and
Tickets £10 enigmatic even today; one of the most
celebrated American poets remained largely
unpublished in her lifetime, and was a recluse
Monday 22 – Saturday 27 June 2.30pm
who poured out a torrent of work from the
Festival Masterclasses: sanctuary of her bedroom and yet able to
Mahler and the late capture essential truths of human existence.
Through simple staging featuring projected
Romantics images and recorded sound, this is an
Anne Schwanewilms, Malcolm Martineau anthology in song, tracking the evolution of
course directors Dickinson’s poetic thought and concept – from
Julia Faulkner, Richard Stokes, everyday, mundane, repetitive activity (recipe,
Franziska Roth course tutors epigram, letter) to a broad account of her most
central themes (death, love, nature, eternity
Outstanding German lyric soprano Anne and spirituality).
Schwanewilms joins pianist Malcolm Martineau
to explore with young international singers and Britten Studio, Snape 3pm
accompanists the sound world and texts of (ends approx. 4.15pm, no interval)
Mahler’s works for voice and piano, alongside Tickets £20, £16, £12 21 and under half price
the songs of Mahler's contemporaries and Coach Free (2pm)
successors, including Korngold and Pfitzner.
Peter Pears Recital Room, Snape Monday 22
– Wednesday 24, Friday 26 – Saturday 27 June
2.30pm (ends approx. 5.30pm)
Tickets £6
Info and booking:
snapemaltings.co.uk
01728 687110Monday 22 – Tuesday 23 21
Monday 22 June 7.30pm Tuesday 23 June 3pm
Doric Quartet & Friends Clare Hammond
Alina Ibragimova violin • Cédric Tiberghien piano Clare Hammond piano
Franck Sonata for violin and piano 28’ Bach Toccata in D minor, BWV 913 11’
Mendelssohn Quartet No 2 in A minor Op.13 30’ Kenneth Hesketh Selections from Horae
Chausson Concerto for string quartet, piano (pro clara) 14’
and violin 42’ Stravinsky Three movements from Petrushka 14’
Mark-Anthony Turnage True Life Stories 14’
Chausson’s strikingly unusual chamber music
Rachmaninov Sonata No.2 (revised version) 19’
‘concerto’ pits a violin-piano duo against a
string quartet in a work that refracts the Clare Hammond is one of the UK’s most
gracefulness and melodic charm of the dynamic young pianists, equally at home in
Baroque through the lens of his French music of today as she is taking on the huge
contemporaries. It is preceded here by César virtuosic challenges of the cornerstones of
Franck’s violin sonata, one of the most revered the piano repertoire. Her programme
of its genre. Between the two, the youthful encompasses Bach’s florid Toccata, the heady
ebullience of the 18-year-old Mendelssohn atmosphere of St Petersburg’s Shrovetide Fair
provides a perfect foil. (as depicted in Stravinsky’s concert work
drawn from his famous ballet) and
Snape Maltings Concert Hall 7.30pm
Rachmaninov’s mighty sonata. In between
(ends approx. 9.40pm)
come more intimate reflective moments;
Tickets £30, £22, £18, £12 21 and under half price
extracts from Kenneth Hesketh’s cycle
Coach Free (5.30pm)
covering sunrise to sunset (delicate
miniatures with evocative expression
Tuesday 23 June 11am markings – ‘as fleet as the tiniest humming
Hesse Lecture: bird’… ‘like intertwining chime clocks’) and
Turnage’s suite of lyrical mediations for family
Frances Spalding and friends.
Sea Interludes: maritime themes and seaside Britten Studio, Snape 3pm
associations in mid-20th century British art (ends approx. 4.25pm)
and culture Tickets £20, £16, £12
The sea, John Piper wrote, is a ‘powerful 21 and under half price
emotional agent’ in English art. This was a Coach Free (2pm)
controversial remark in 1933. Cities, not the
seaside, had long been regarded as generative
environments for new art and for intellectual Tuesday 23 June 2.30pm
communities. The notion that desolate Festival Masterclasses:
beaches, cliffs, harbours, the crying of marsh Mahler and the late Romantics
birds, or the swagger and gaiety found in For more details see p.20
coastal resorts, might inspire modern artists
and musicians surprised many. Art historian,
biographer and critic Frances Spalding explores
these ideas in reference to the work of artists
including John Piper, Mary Potter and
Prunella Clough.
Jubilee Hall, Aldeburgh 11am
(ends approx 12.15pm)
Ticket £1524 Aldeburgh Festival 2020
Introducing Tuesday 23 June 8pm
Julia Bullock Perle Noire:
American soprano Julia Bullock
Meditations for
is known for her outstanding Joséphine
technique, commanding stage Music by Tyshawn Sorey
presence and social activism. Words by Claudia Rankine
She first programmed Joséphine UK premiere
Baker’s songs in 2014 and has
continued to explore her life and Julia Bullock soprano
work culminating in Perle Noire: International Contemporary Ensemble
Meditations for Joséphine which Tyshawn Sorey percussion and piano
receives its UK premiere at Zack Winokur director
Aldeburgh Festival. Her residency Julia Bullock’s rich soprano combines with a
also explores the music of Cage voice of social consciousness and activism that
and Foss, and she sings Britten’s underpins her work as an artist. What began as
Les Illuminations with the BBC a programme of Joséphine Baker’s cabaret
Symphony Orchestra in the songs in a recital at the Met Museum in New
festival’s closing concert. York has been transformed into an intimate
‘A deep thinker and probing tribute to the life and legacy of the world-
intellect, she considers her role renowned singer, dancer, French Resistance
as a socially-conscious activist as agent and civil rights activist. This collaboration
important as any note she sings.’ of re-composed songs, spoken word, movement
WQXR and music offers ‘a singular theatrical
experience brimming with grief, resilience, and
fury’ (San Francisco Classical Voice).
‘a musician who delights in making her
own rules’ The New Yorker on Julia Bullock
Snape Maltings Concert Hall 8pm
(ends approx. 9.15pm, no interval)
Tickets £35, £30, £22, £12
21 and under half price
Coach Free (6.30pm)
Pre-performance talk
with members of the creative team
Peter Pears Recital Room, Snape 7pm
Tickets free but please book
Photo © Allison-Michael-OrensteinTuesday 23 – Thursday 25 25
Wednesday 24 June from 9.30am Wednesday 24 June 7.30pm
Festival Walk II Joyce DiDonato:
Somerleyton Hall & Fritton Lake Songplay
The walk begins at St Edmund’s Church, Joyce DiDonato mezzo soprano
Fritton. We then walk around the lake, passing Craig Terry piano
through formal gardens and along the Chuck Israels double bass
woodland track, before lunching at the Charlie Porter trumpet
summer house with grand views across the James Madison double bass
water, where the brave can choose to swim Lautaro Greco bandoneon
from the jetty. After lunch we head towards Baroque arias and standards from the
the hall, the seat of our hosts Lord and Lady Great American Songbook
Somerleyton, visiting the estate’s other two
churches, Ashby and St Mary's, along the way. The American mezzo-soprano makes her
Aldeburgh Festival debut, bringing together
Suitable clothing and footwear essential.
world-class musicians from the varied worlds
Swimmers must bring their own costumes
of opera, jazz and tango in the pure pleasure of
and towel. 6 miles. Fairly easy going. Sorry, no
improvisation, experimentation and exchange.
dogs allowed. Please let us know any dietary
Together they create their own musical
requirements.
language, finding surprising connections
Tickets £28 including lunch and coach between 17th-century Italian arias and jazz
Coaches depart Moot Hall, Aldeburgh from classics. Working with her hand-picked band led
9am (returning approx. 5pm). by pianist and arranger Craig Terry, DiDonato
draws inspiration from Cavalli and Chet Baker
in equal measure.
Wednesday 24 June 2.30pm Snape Maltings Concert Hall 7.30pm
Festival Masterclasses: (ends approx. 9.20pm)
Mahler and the late Romantics Tickets (limited to max. 4 per household)
For more details see p.20 £60, £45, £35, £15 21 and under half price
Coach Free (6pm)
Wednesday 24 June 6pm Thursday 25 June 11am
Lecture Recital: Dame Janet Baker
Richard Stokes and Joyce DiDonato
This talk focusses on the biographical in conversation with John Bridcut
background to Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden
Gesellen: The letters that Mahler sent to his A uniquely intimate opportunity to hear from
friends about Johanna Richter, the soprano two extraordinary singers, both equally at home
who inspired the music of this song cycle in opera and in recital – one with deep connections
deserves to be better known. The talk is to Britten the festival, the other making her
illustrated by Britten–Pears Young Artists. Aldeburgh debut this year. They discuss their
lives and careers with award-winning filmmaker
Peter Pears Recital Room, Snape 6pm
and writer John Bridcut, with film footage and
(ends approx. 7pm)
audio clips from their performances.
Tickets £6
Snape Maltings Concert Hall 11am
(ends approx. 12.30pm, no interval)
Tickets £25, £21, £18, £10
Coach Free (10am)26 Aldeburgh Festival 2020
Thursday 25 June 2pm Thursday 25 June 7.30pm
Julia Bullock & Friends Knussen Chamber
Julia Bullock soprano Orchestra
Evan Hughes baritone
Evan Hughes baritone
Knussen Chamber Orchestra
Ryan Wigglesworth conductor/piano
Bretton Brown piano
Ryan Wigglesworth conductor Mozart Quintet for piano and winds 25’;
Serenade in C minor 24'
Cage She is Asleep 8’
Carter The American Sublime (European
Carter Rigmarole 2’; Esprit Rude/Esprit Doux I
premiere) 14’
& II 9’; Three Explorations (European premiere) 10’
Messiaen Oiseaux Exotiques 14’
Copland Duo 14’
Foss 13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird 16’; Composer, conductor and pianist Ryan
Curriculum Vitae with time bomb 11’ Wigglesworth returns with the chamber
orchestra he formed at the festival last year.
Longstanding friends Julia Bullock and Evan
Messiaen described birds as ‘the greatest
Hughes bring their instrumental collaborators
musicians on the planet’ and his piano
together in an atmospheric programme which
concerto is a glittering, exotic aural aviary,
opens and closes with Cage’s short work for
mixing the songs of 18 species from habitats
voice and prepared piano. It also includes
ranging from Asia to the Americas.
vocal and instrumental music by Carter and
Wigglesworth is the pianist in the first of two
Foss alongside their American contemporary
Mozart wind ensemble gems, a quintet of
Copland. Carter was a great admirer of
infectious energy and languid charm that
TS Eliot’s writing and Three Explorations
contrasts with the storm-tossed serenade. An
continues the festival’s celebration of his Four
English major at Harvard in the 1920s, Elliott
Quartets. Lukas Foss was inspired by Wallace
Carter decided to set the poetry of Wallace
Stevens’s groundbreaking sequence of poems.
Stevens in one of his very last works, which
The thirteen brief movements combine
receives its European premiere this evening.
soaring phrases with hushed whispering,
while the flute conveys the many Snape Maltings Concert Hall 7.30pm
manifestations of the blackbird. (ends approx. 9.30pm)
Tickets £32, £28, £24, £12
Britten Studio, Snape 2pm
21 and under half price
(ends approx. 3.30 pm, no interval)
Coach Free (5.30pm)
Tickets £22, £17, £12 21 and under half price
Coach Free (12 noon)Thursday 25 – Friday 26 27
Friday 26 June 11am Friday 26 June 3pm
Britten-Pears Alumni II Anna Lapwood
Lauren Decker contralto Arrangements of two works by Elgar and
Paul Grant baritone short pieces by composers ranging from Tallis,
Natalie Burch piano Victoria and Frescobaldi to Britten, Tippett,
Ligeti and Patrick Gowers
Britten Tit for Tat 9’; A Charm of Lullabies 13’
Butterworth A Shropshire Lad 14’ The distinguished organist, conductor and
Vaughan Williams Four Last Songs 10’; broadcaster makes her Aldeburgh Festival
Linden Lea 3’ debut on the newly installed Peter Collins
and songs by Grainger, Wordsworth and organ in Orford. It is an intriguing programme
Warlock which, at its heart, reveals little-known organ
music by Britten. The sequence of music
Much of this anthology of song and verse
celebrates 20th-century composers’ affection
has sleep, dreams and the nocturnal world
for output from earlier generations, before
running through it like a moonlit path. Britten’s
ending in a blaze of Edwardian splendour.
lullabies are hardly restful – they startle as
often as they soothe. Night-time thoughts Orford Church 3pm
had clearly occupied the teenage Britten too (ends approx. 4.10pm, no interval)
in his choice of Walter de la Mare poems. They Tickets £20, £16, £10 21 and under half price
show a skillful assimilation of the worlds of Coach via Snape £6 (2pm)
English art song and folksong absorbed by
Warlock, Grainger and Vaughan Williams, Friday 26 June 6pm
whose four late songs include a poem
depicting the composer himself asleep. Samuele Telari
Butterworth’s settings of Housman’s revered Bach Prelude and Fugue in B-flat minor 7'
poetry capture its darkly elegiac mood, the Grieg Holberg Suite (extracts) 12'
composer’s death in wartime action only Ligeti Musica Ricercata (extracts) 10'
amplifying its delicate poignancy. Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition 33’
Jubilee Hall, Aldeburgh 11am Young Italian accordion virtuoso Samuele
(ends approx. 12.30pm) Telari performs his own transcriptions of
Tickets £16, £13 21 and under half price familiar piano and orchestral works. He
captures the essence of the originals – Bach’s
grandeur, Ligeti’s verve and impish invention
Friday 26 June 2.30pm – while ensuring they 'belong' to his
Festival Masterclasses: instrument. His arrangement of Mussorgsky’s
Mahler and the late Romantics paintings-inspired character pieces is a feat of
For more details see p.20 astonishing ingenuity and dexterity, offering
chance to compare it with Ravel's famous
orchestral arrangement in the festival’s
final concert.
Britten Studio, Snape 6pm (ends approx 7.20pm)
Tickets £18, £15, £12
Coach Free (5pm)28 Aldeburgh Festival 2020
Friday 26 June 9pm Saturday 27 June 3pm
The Gesualdo Six Allan Clayton &
Owain Park director Friends II
Music by composers including Hildegard Allan Clayton tenor
von Bingen, Gesualdo, Byrd, Tallis, Brahms, Claire Wickes flute
Poulenc, Rodney Bennett, Joanna Marsh, Nicholas Daniel oboe
Owain Park, Joanna Ward and Alison Willis Elena Urioste violin
Adrian Brendel cello
As the light of a summer evening fades, the Mahan Esfahani harpsichord
dynamic young male vocal ensemble The James Baillieu piano
Gesualdo Six performs a sequence of music
that includes great Renaissance and medieval Britten Canticle 1 ‘My Beloved is Mine’ 7’;
hymns, psalms and plainchant alongside sacred Temporal Variations 15’; Two insect pieces 5’
and secular works of our own time. Rainier Pastoral Triptych 9’; Cycle for
Declamation 9’; Three Greek Epigrams 7’;
Blythburgh Church 9pm
The Bee Oracles 18’
(ends approx. 10.20pm, no interval)
Michael Berkeley Insects (world premiere) 10’
Tickets £22, £20, £15, £12 21 and under half price
Coach via Snape £7 (8pm) A stellar chamber line-up celebrates Priaulx
Rainier’s music and her enduring friendship
Saturday 27 June 11am with her near-contemporaries Benjamin
Britten and Peter Pears. Her setting of Edith
Imogen Cooper Sitwell’s The Bee-Keeper is an intricate
Beethoven Eleven Bagatelles Op.119 15’; interlocking aural honeycomb, dances and
Sonata Op.110 21’ declamations with a background hum of
Thomas Adès Darknesse Visible 7’ melancholy. Allusions to nature permeate
Britten Night Piece 5’ Rainier’s music – a set of miniature pastorals
Schubert Sonata in G major D894 40’ for solo oboe, pithy lines to bird and dolphin in
her sharply etched epigrams. But it is Britten’s
Imogen Cooper is internationally renowned for flighty character pieces and a new work for
her virtuosity and lyricism and this programme solo harpsichord by Michael Berkeley that lead
pairs Beethoven and Schubert piano landmarks us back to the insect world.
with two fine pieces by two previous
Britten Studio, Snape 3pm (ends approx. 5pm)
Aldeburgh Festival directors. Adès takes as his
Tickets £30, £24, £12 21 and under half price
starting point a Dowland lute song and both his
Coach Free (2pm)
and Britten’s works reflect on the nature of
darkness and night. Beethoven’s fascinatingly Pre-performance talk
quirky collection of short ‘pot boiler’ Bagatelles with Michael Berkeley and Oliver Soden
opens this recital by one of the finest Jerwood Kiln Studio, Snape 2pm
interpreters of Classical repertoire. Tickets free but please book
‘there can scarcely be any musician
alive who is more truly loved’
Saturday 27 June 2.30pm
New York Review of Books
Festival Masterclasses:
Snape Maltings Concert Hall 11am
Mahler and the late Romantics
(ends approx. 1pm)
For more details see p.20
Tickets £30, £22, £18, £12 21 and under half price
Coach Free (10am)Friday 26 – Sunday 28 29
Saturday 27 June 7.30pm Sunday 28 June 2pm
Hagen Quartet Masterclass
Beethoven Quartet in E minor Op.59 No. 2 Final Recital
‘Razumovsky’ 35’, Quartet in C-sharp minor
Singers and pianists from the
Op.131 40’
Britten–Pears Young Artist Programme
There is very little fuss or showiness to the
Britten–Pears course participants have worked
Salzburg-based Hagen Quartet, but they are
with Anne Schwanewilms, Malcolm Martineau,
widely acknowledged as one of the world’s
Julia Faulkner, Richard Stokes and Franziska
best, bringing what they describe as an
Roth throughout the week and present a
‘old-fashioned craftsmanship’ to their
programme of Mahler’s works for voice & piano
performances. Here they bring a brief
and that of his lesser performed contemporaries
immersion into the worldwide Beethoven 250
such as Korngold and Pfitzner.
celebrations, playing two quartets which richly
illustrate why even a composer of Schubert’s Britten Studio, Snape 2pm (ends approx. 3.30pm)
brilliance would remark, on experiencing Tickets £10 21 and under half price
Beethoven’s Op.131: ‘After this, what is left for Coach Free (1pm)
us to write?’
Snape Maltings Concert Hall 7.30pm Sunday 28 June 5pm
(ends approx. 9.15pm)
Tickets £30, £22, £18, £12 21 and under half price BBC SO & Julia Bullock
Coach Free (5.30pm) BBC Symphony Orchestra
Julia Bullock soprano
Martyn Brabbins conductor
Sunday 28 June 11am
Mark-Anthony Turnage Frieze 21’
Alina Ibragimova Britten Les Illuminations 21’
Bach Sonata No.1 in G minor 20’; Partita No. 1 Mahler arr. Britten What the Wild Flowers
in B minor 30’ Tell Me 10’
Mussorgsky orch. Ravel Pictures at an
Hearing works as intimate as Bach’s solo violin
Exhibition 35’
sonatas and partitas played in Blythburgh's
resonant acoustic is a treat – doubly so when Julia Bullock joins Martyn Brabbins and the
the performer is Alina Ibragimova, so clearly at BBC SO for a rousing closing concert. She
one with the music. The quiet intelligence and sings Britten’s setting of Rimbaud’s vivid and
raw energy of her playing is the perfect match fantastical poems and his arrangement of
for Bach, her focus drawing us into a moving, the second movement of Mahler’s largest
shared experience. symphony. Turnage’s piece is a response to
Klimt’s 1902 painting, Beethoven Frieze, while
‘“Played” is a feeble word to convey the
Mussorgsky translates the pictures of his
life-changing richness of the experience.’
The Observer on Ibragimova’s solo Bach
friend, Vladimir Hartmann, into resounding
music worthy of a festival finale.
Blythburgh Church 11am
(ends approx. 12pm, no interval) Snape Maltings Concert Hall 5pm
Tickets £26, £22, £16, £12 21 and under half price (ends approx. 7.10pm)
Coach via Snape £7 (10am) Tickets £40, £32, £27, £15 21 and under half price
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