Anyone who has been to Snape Maltings will recognise the sweeping view from the concert hall over the reed marshes and the River Alde. The sky is huge, the horizon endless and, thankfully, the sun was shining.
I was on a quick visit to the Aldeburgh Festival into which we managed to squeeze five concerts, two gardens, the Red House, a tool around Aldeburgh’s high street and even two 6am walks along the River Deben and an encounter with a cuckoo!
We kicked off in style on Saturday with the ‘1948 Festival Opening Night Choral and Orchestral Concert’ the centrepiece of which was Benjamin Britten’s St Nicholas Cantata. This was actually written in 1947/8 for the centenary celebrations of Lancing College but since it coincided with the planning of the first Aldeburgh Festival in 1948, the college gave special permission for two performances at the festival. The cantata is written for a tenor, St Nicholas, sensitively sung by Nick Pritchard, mixed choir, string orchestra, piano and percussion and, for the two well known hymns which are incorporated into the score, the audience. The cantata ‘endeavours to bring the little that is known of St Nicholas as a man into imaginative harmony with the saint whose life and miracles are revered in all Christian countries.’
Sunday morning found us at an 11am recital by Steven Osborne – three delightful vignettes by Judith Weir (fragile, Michael’s Strathspey and Chorale, for Steve) and two Schubert sonatas – D.959 and D.960. This was really the high point of the trip as I had never heard Steven Osborn play before – but cannot wait to do so again. His Schubert was breathtaking – the softest notes as clear as a bell, the pauses so perfect and so crucial. As a relatively late convert to Schubert, I was blown away.
After an expedition to Wenhaston Grange garden (see my Walks on Hampstead Heath blog for more on the garden) and some supper we were back on the stage of the concert hall at 9pm for Sounding Motion – Liam Byrne (viol de gamba), Clare O’Connell (cello) and Tom Rogerson (piano, clavichord and synthesiser). Taking inspiration from the Renaissance music of Alexander Agricola, Josquin de Prez and Johannes Ockeghem, Sounding Motion was an hour long improvisation – ‘three lines moving through space and converging with each other in different permutations’. It was very beautiful, very mediatative but, maybe appropriately for a late night concert, very soporific so I fear that I may not have appreciated as much of it as I should have done.
However, Monday morning found us bright and breezy and in attendance at The Red House, Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears’ home just outside Aldeburgh for over 40 years.
This was a fascinating visit and I very much recommend it to anyone who is interested in Britten and is in the area. You get to wander around the house itself but also Britten’s composing studio where you can play short snatches of some of his most iconic pieces, their library where they often entertained and performed, a fascinating archive space which is used mainly for research – and their delightful gardens. Their spirits truly inhabit the space and you feel almost like a priviledged guest.
Back at the Maltings there was an afternoon of song – Debussy, Fauré and Delibes followed by Messaien’s Chants de terre et de ciel and a new piece by Laura Bowler. Laura is one of Music Patron’s new composers and I was really interested to hear her Glue, Gravity, Call it what you like…. in memory of her mother. This was sung very touchingly by Gwyneth Ann Rand who I first heard of because of her involvement in the Sound Voice project and have liked ever since. Gwyneth also sang, stunningly, the Messiaen. Not everyone’s cup of tea but for Messaien enthusiasts, magical.
A final supper at the Maltings’ very pleasant café overlooking those marshes set us up for our last concert – the BBC Singers under Sofi Jeannin and the Castilian String Quartet with Haydn‘s String quartet no 64, Messaien‘s Cinq Rechants and Judith Weir‘s blue hills beyond blue hills.
The Messien is totally nuts – the libretto largely gobbledigook – but go with it and it is delightful. The Judith Weir needed no effort to be delightful. Settings, for choir and quartet, of brief poems by Scottsh poet Alan Spence, it follows the seasons of the year starting in spring and ending with ‘a hymn to the New Year’.
Visiting the festival
If you would like to go to the festival there are still a few days left – it ends on June 23rd – although most of the bigger concerts are long since sold out. But you could at least put yourself on the mailing list for next year! And if you do get tickets for any year, remember to take a small cushion to sit on. Notoriously, the Maltings seats are the most uncomfortable in the concert going world!!
For those who would like to know a little more about the garden we visited, where we stayed (by the Tide Mill in Woodbridge) and my early morning encounter with the cuckoo, check in to my Walks on Hampstead Heath blog here.
Meanwhile, don’t forget…. Lunchtime on June 25th
Don’t forget that at lunchtime on June 25th we will have the second of our Philharmonia’s MMSF Instrumental Fellowship Programme events – a harp recital with MMSF fellow, Aisha Palmer. Her programme will encompass music from Bach to Grace Williams and contemporary Welsh composer Rhian Samuel.
Book here – £15 to include a refreshing glass of wine – or pay on the door.
For other happenings in July, at Hampstead Lane and elsewhere – see our Upcoming Events page.
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