The 74th Aldeburgh festival featured some of the greatest world premieres reminding us of its magnificence, keeping the sentiment of the founding fathers alive.
The British classical music festival Aldeburgh festival takes place in Suffolk every year in June. The festival is held on Snape Maltings Concert hall each year. The festival was founded in 1948 by the two of its founding fathers, the famous composer Benjamin Britten and the English tenor Peter Pears. While Britten died in 1976, Pears died a decade later in 1986. This year’s festival has tried to keep their spirit alive at the same time, do something new without losing its touch from the root.
At this year’s 74th Suffolk’s Aldeburgh festival, the Snape Maltings hall has emerged under a new title, Britten pears Arts. Its purpose was to honor both founding fathers. Unlike the usual festival, this year’s concerts were designed to be held on weekends in parts.
In the first program by Britten Sinfonia, John Tavener’s music was presented and it was conducted by Sian Edwards. Oboist Nicholas Daniel and singer Andrew Watts gave the audience the world premiere of Sir John Tavener’s La Noche Oscura. The eloquent melancholy and the cry of anguish had been flawlessly presented by the duo.
In the second Britten Sinfonia concert, there were more world premieres. Young British Trumpeter Matilda Lloyd presented John Woolrich’s ‘Hark! The Echoing Air’, which engulfed the minds of the listeners with its eccentric rhythmic flow. The featuring composer Tansy Davis wrote a highly engaging new musical piece, ‘Monolith: I Extend My Arms’. It was created being inspired by the 1930 monochrome photograph by Claude Cahun. The sound of the music is quite contrasting; at some point, it seems tense while other times it is gentle. Davies has achieved the greatest highest with this one.
One of the most memorable pieces of the concert was Nadine Benjamin’s theatrical number ‘Beam: Everybody Can Stand in their Own Light’. The members of Decus Ensemble accompanied by the supreme music direction by pianist Jan Rautio effortlessly present an extremely emotional, humorous, challenging, and fast-paced musical number. It features Benjamin’s personal and real story depicting the horrifying cases of bullying, racism, addiction, and sexual abuse. Through years of struggle, she has found redemption in music with hard work and dedication. Her performance had a clear impact on the audience, provoking their thoughts for the best.
At the end of the weekend, Alisdair Hogarth on piano and the tenor Andrew Staples performed a recital of Britten blended with a song cycle by Stephen Hough, created during the lockdown. It was performed for the very first time before an audience. It was revealed that Hough was challenged by the duo to write something that depicted and embraced all the problems of live music-making caused by the new social distancing norms. It offered good potential for a very long piece.
But Hough surprised them by writing flexible elements that could adjust themselves to create different scenarios. At the end of the piece, there was a little lullaby which enhanced the magnificence of the piece remarkably. The audience became so engaged with the recital that they wanted more after it was over.
The history behind the festival is quite interesting. While Britten and Pears were on a tour to Switzerland, they decided to found a festival in their native country as well. It was first held in the Aldeburgh Jubilee Hall from June 5th to June 13th in 1948. Over the years, the festival became larger and poetry, drama, literature, and more became part of the festival alongside opera productions. It is extremely famous for focusing on classical music, unlike any other concert. The 73rd festival in 2020 was held virtually due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
