Aldeburgh Festival 2019 • Snape Maltings
Three Artists in Residence each curated a part of Aldeburgh Festival 2019. The excitingly individual voice of Austrian composer Thomas Larcher was featured, with his opera The Hunting Gun receiving its UK premiere. Festival favourite, outstanding tenor Mark Padmore performs in seven concerts and leads our Poetry and Music series. One of the world’s most charismatic performers, Barbara Hannigan appears as soloist, conductor, narrator, recitalist and mentor to the singers from her own young artist programme.
“How culture can become the economic engine in a rural area should be modelled on the example of Aldeburgh. Aldeburgh is a cultural destination with international appeal.”
Schweizer Musikzeitung
“A music festival should aspire to innovate, investigate, take risks, create relationships, be distinctive. These are things that characterise the Aldeburgh Festival.”
El Pais
★★★★★
Thomas Larcher’s special magic world, where harmonic niceties from music’s past rub alongside performance techniques that probably take us into the future.”
The Times on The Hunting Gun
★★★★★
“a breathtaking piece… Larcher’s music has the quirky richness of a coat made not only of rainbow colours, but of every conceivable fabric: a sonic equivalent of feathers, velvet, net, silk, brushed steel, burlap, lace.”
The Observer on The Hunting Gun
★★★★
“Larcher’s music invests this haunted tale with music of such sweetly seductive charm that it becomes like some addictive drug that you can’t stop inhaling.”
The Telegraph on The Hunting Gun
“Soprano Liselot De Wilde gave an incredible performance as our icon, handling Frederik Neyrinck’s tricky score in the most challenging of circumstances: laid on her back, in nude underwear, while being photographed. The 75-minute work asks important questions about our veneration of youth, beauty and self-promotion.”
Opera Now on ICON
“Unaccompanied singing comes no better than this.”
The Observer on Tenebrae
Soundtrack:
The Hunting Gun
Opera by Thomas Larcher
Libretto by Friederike Gösweiner based on the novel by Yasushi Inoue
Full list of artists visible in the video:
Bastard Assignments
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Edward Gardner
Mark Padmore
Andrew West
Pierre-Laurent Aimard
Drive-by Shooting
Sarah Aristidou
Peter Schöne
Barbara Hannigan
LUDWIG
Antonio Pappano
Roderick Williams
Vox Luminis
Joanna MacGregor
Adrian Brendel
Knussen Chamber Orchestra
Ryan Wigglesworth
Stephen Hough
Karim Said
Tenebrae
Alisa Weilerstein
Marta Fontanals-Simmons
Ardeo Quartet
Heath Quartet
Ulysses Ensemble
Geoffrey Paterson
Trio Isimsiz
Danny Koo
Daniel Lebhardt
Kathryn Williams
Zakia Fawcett
Mayah Kadish
Taupe
Alice Zawadzki
Fred Thomas
Chorus of Opera Holland Park
Aldeburgh Carnival 2018 • Group A • Learning & Inclusion • Snape Maltings
Group A, a vocal group for 8-18s in Lowestoft and Ipswich, works with professional musicians year-round. They take part in exciting performances and explore all kinds of music and are free to join.
In August 2018 they took part in Aldeburgh Carnival, working with world-music expert Sarah Jewell and a team of musicians to create a performance for the Parade.
If you would like to join Group A or want more information, please contact Karen Dickman, Producer, Learning and Inclusion (learning@snapemaltings.co.uk).
Snape Maltings
Subscribe:
Twitter: @snapemaltings
Instagram: @snapemaltingsmusic
Facebook:
Film by Liv Penny
Aldeburgh Festival 2017 • Celebrating 50 years of music at Snape Maltings
In 2017 we opened with the same work that opened Snape Maltings Concert Hall in 1967 - Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream, in a magical new production with a cast of internationally renowned singers and a world-class creative partnership of director Netia Jones and conductor Ryan Wigglesworth.
Look back at all the concerts of the festival with photos, programmes, links to broadcasts on BBC Radio 3, tweets from behind the scenes and more on our website:
The soundtrack for this video is Iestyn Davies, Sophie Bevan, the Choristers of Chelmsford Cathedral and Aldeburgh Festival Orchestra conducted by Ryan Wigglesworth performing Now, until the break of day from A Midsummer Night's Dream, followed by an excerpt of Bill Fontana's sound installation Acoustic Vision of the River Alde Marshes.
Other performers that appear in this video:
Belcea Quartet
Jörg Widmann
Jubilee Opera
Ben Parry
EXAUDI
Nishat Khan
Honey and the Bear
Vox Luminis
Pierre-Laurent Aimard
Castalian Quartet
Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla and the CBSO
Aldeburgh Voices
Aldeburgh Music Club
Andrew Watts
London Sinfonietta
Marino Formenti
Albion Quartet
Matthew Rose
Saint Ephraim Male Voice Choir
Multi-Story Orchestra
Mark Padmore
Roger Vignoles
Trio Früstück
Steven Isserlis
Connie Shih
Tamsin Waley-Cohen
Huw Watkins
Nicholas Daniel
Musicians on the Britten–Pears Young Artist Programme
Harriet Mackenzie
Laura Moody
Aldeburgh Festival 2018 is Friday 8 – Sunday 24 June
Aldeburgh Festival 2016: Piano in the Reeds | Snape Maltings
Aldeburgh Festival 2016: 10-26 June
17-year-old pianist Julian Trevelyan, an Aldeburgh Young Musician, plays the piece The Curlew from composer Olivier Messiaen’s grand evocation of birdsong, Catalogue d’Oiseaux, in the reeds surrounding Snape Maltings on England's Suffolk coast. The curlew is the bird most associated with both Snape and the unmistakable call of the curlew is a feature of walking outdoors at Snape Maltings, audible across the reeds.
The centrepiece of Aldeburgh Festival 2016 sees Pierre-Laurent Aimard performing the entirety of Messiaen’s Catalogue d’Oiseaux over four concerts, from sunrise to midnight on Sunday 19 June, set against the panoramic backdrops and teeming wildlife of Snape Maltings and RSPB Minsmere. See
Birdsong fascinated French composer Olivier Messiaen all his life. Catalogue d’Oiseaux is his largest work inspired by birds, a 150-minute piece for solo piano which creates a rich musical language from the depictions of 77 species of bird that Messiaen heard in the Camargue region of south-west France. One of the world’s leading interpreters of Messiaen’s piano music, Pierre-Laurent Aimard creates a day that animates the piece as never before. Hear the birds evoked by the piano alongside the myriad real birds of the Suffolk coast amidst the region’s unspoilt expanses of reedbeds, marshy waters and sky.
Julian Trevelyan is featured at Aldeburgh Festival 2016 as a performer in the final-weekend Mikrokosmos project in a relay of pianists ( that also includes Emanuel Ax, Tamara Stefanovich, Håkon Austbø, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, local children and adult beginners who have signed up to Aldeburgh Festival’s Grade 1 Challenge (
For more information about the Aldeburgh Festival, visit
Aldeburgh Music:
Aldeburgh Music is an international performance centre set in a stunning landscape on the Suffolk coast with artist development and education as its creative engine. Our year-round programme has grown out of the Aldeburgh Festival, founded in 1948 by Benjamin Britten, Peter Pears and Eric Crozier, and is the realisation of Britten’s vision for a special place where established stars, young artists, amateurs and audience members come to broaden their horizons in an exhilarating creative and natural environment.
See to find out more.
Aldeburgh Music is supported using public funding from Arts Council England.
Twitter: @snapemaltings
Instagram: @snapemaltingsmusic
Facebook:
Robert Murray & Andrew West - Schubert 'Abendstern' | Aldeburgh Residencies | Aldeburgh Music
Tenor Robert Murray and pianist Andrew West has been preparing Schubert on an Aldeburgh Residency for a forthcoming CD. He took some time out to record 'Abendstern', part of his performance at the upcoming 2014 Britten Weekend.
'The Heart of the Matter' and performances of Britten's Canticles with Spira Mirabilis are part of the Britten Weekend on 24-26 October 2014. For tickets:
With thanks to AJM Productions for the audio recording.
goPlay | Aldeburgh Residencies | Aldeburgh Music
goPlay is the brainchild of Peter Gregson and technologists, Reactify.
Their aim has been to eliminate or reduce the amount of hardware performers need on stage. For example, instead of using a foot pedal to trigger a reverb effect, why not use a sequence of notes played by the performer? This can also expand to looping and other effects.
Aldeburgh Music is an artistic haven in Suffolk, England, where world-class music is presented in a year-round programme, with its flagship international festival taking place in June. It is also a retreat where performers, composers and artists are invited to come to take time out of their hectic lives, be inspired by the surroundings and each other, and produce innovative new work.
View more Aldeburgh Residency videos here, and to find out more about Aldeburgh Music and Aldeburgh Residencies, visit aldeburgh.co.uk.
Aldeburgh Music's Britten Centenary Trailer
The centenary of Benjamin Britten (1913-1976), born in Lowestoft, Suffolk, will be marked by special events all over the world. If you want to experience the true spirit of one of the greatest musical minds the UK has produced, you need to visit Aldeburgh itself, where he lived and worked for most of his life.
For more information about Aldeburgh Music's celebrations of the world famous composer, visit
Extracts from Britten's Peter Grimes: 4 Sea Interludes, Op. 33a: Dawn and The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra: Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Henry Purcell, Op. 34.
Performed by the Concertgebouw Orchestra, conducted by Eduard van Beinum
With permission from Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers
Recording licensed courtesy of Naxos Rights International
Video by John Walker
Solomon's Knot at Easter | Aldeburgh Residencies | Aldeburgh Music
Orford Church was filled with the sounds of Solomon's Knot at Easter. Solomon's Knot are part of Aldeburgh Music's Open Space programme, which supports emerging artists and ensembles for up to three years. Solomon's Knot have been on the scheme since September 2013 and had their Aldeburgh Music debut at Easter. Joint Artistic Director Jonathan Sells talk about the project.
Find out more about Open Space on the Aldeburgh Music website -
AYM @ Ten
This short documentary focuses on the past ten years, the present and the future of Aldeburgh Young Musicians. Interviewing the visionary individuals involved in the conception of the scheme, the professional artists who lead the activities, various alumni in professional work, the young musicians at the core of the programme and the team of passionate staff who facilitate the AYM scheme, this film encapsulates the distinct AYM way of learning that makes the programme so special.
This film was created by Lightly Frozen Productions. Music by Aldeburgh Young Musicians.
Interested in being part of AYM? Go to snapemaltings.co.uk/aym for more information.
Musical encounter near Snape Maltings and Concert Hall
Came across this musician recording a video while on a walk near the famous Snape Maltings and Concert Hall, Suffolk, in England.
Roam With Me is all about recording whatever it is that I come across. This is rather different to what is normally posted but was a very pleasant surprise!
The musician is a Londoner called Byron Biroli.
Visit his website here
or
listen to this track and others here
I hope you enjoy his music.
If you would like to subscribe to this 'slowtv' style channel please click here
Jonathan Reekie on the vision for Grimes in Aldeburgh at the 2013 Aldeburgh Festival
Aldeburgh Music's Chief Executive Jonathan Reekie talks about his vision for the three-part exploration of Britten's great opera Peter Grimes at the 2013 Aldeburgh Festival: Peter Grimes in Concert, Grimes on the Beach, and The Borough.
For more information, see
HD version: Friday Afternoons 2015 at Aldeburgh Music
Mass sing with 800 children from 26 Suffolk schools, led by Pete Letanka. Composers Gwyneth Herbert and Jason Yarde perform with the children. Also featuring performances of two winning songs from Britten Young Songwriter Competition.
See for all schools taking part in the Big Sing.
On Friday 28 November 2014 Friday Afternoons events took place in many regions of the UK as well as in Belgium, Greece, Norway and the USA. Events range from a massed group of 800 children from 26 Suffolk schools who sang at Snape Maltings Concert Hall, working with two of the Friday Afternoons composers, Gwyneth Herbert and Jason Yarde, to the school assembly taking place at Saint Wilfrid’s CE Primary Academy in Wigan.
Nine Daies Wonder | Aldeburgh Residencies | Aldeburgh Music
Grimes in Aldeburgh trailer
A short trailer featuring 66th Aldeburgh Festival's Grimes in Aldeburgh
Extracts from Britten's Peter Grimes: 4 Sea Interludes, Op. 33a: Dawn
Performed by the Concertgebouw Orchestra, conducted by Eduard van Beinum. With permission from Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers
Recording licensed courtesy of Naxos Rights International
Snape maltings, Suffolk, E.Anglia.UK
A beautiful area of Suffolk on the Alde river, Snape maltings was originally where the malting of barley & the brewing of beer took place. The original buildings have now been made into art galleries and a concert hall.
SNAP 2014 - Art at the Aldeburgh Festival
For more information on visiting the exhibition at Snape Maltings and Orford Ness, please visit
Co-commissioned by 14-18 NOW, WW1 Centenary Art Commissions and Aldeburgh Music.
Aldeburgh World Orchestra - Overture
2012 sees the formation of a new and unique international project, the Aldeburgh World Orchestra. 120 of the most talented young professional musicians from across the world will be travelling to Suffolk,to perform and speak the universal language of music. You will be able to follow their journey here on The Space.
The young musicians will be led by acclaimed British conductor Sir Mark Elder, in performances of Britten, Mahler, Shostakovitch and Stravinsky, as well as the world premiere of a new commission by Charlotte Bray.
The orchestra will be in residence in Aldeburgh, Suffolk, in July 2012. The residency will culminate in high profile performances at Snape Maltings and major London and European venues including the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and the BBC Proms.
The first of a three part film series to document the journey of this international ensemble visits Aldeburgh, to see the project taking shape, introduces some of the exceptional young musicians who are a part of it and hears from the creative team behind this venture.
We also meet Charlotte Bray, the young composer who has come through Aldeburgh Music's Britten--Pears Young Artist Programme and has been commissioned by the BBC to write a new work for the orchestra.
Part two, coming in July, will see the full orchestra meet for the first time for rehearsals, chart some of the other innovative activities with Suffolk young musicians with which it is joining, and follow the epic journey that orchestral participants will embark on leading up to their first performances in the famous Snape Maltings Concert Hall.
Aldeburgh Music is an artistic haven in Suffolk, England, where world-class music is presented in a year-round programme, with its flagship international festival taking place in June. It is also a retreat where performers, composers and artists are invited to come to take time out of their hectic lives, be inspired by the surroundings and each other, and produce innovative new work.
View more Aldeburgh Residency videos here, and to find out more about Aldeburgh Music and Aldeburgh Residencies, visit
Britten-Pears Programme: One Day at the Aldeburgh Festival
What does the Britten-Pears Programme entail? Who is there? Ever wondered what can happen at the BPP and who's involved? Watch the video and find out! Further details about the programme can be found at our website:
Oh, Happy England - J.T. / Here Lies Old Bones
J.T. /Here Lies Old Bones is from Bird Radio's second studio album and stage show Oh, Happy England, a song cycle based on a selection of poems by British writer Walter de la Mare. The project is supported by Aldeburgh Music's Open Space scheme. This footage was captured and edited by Chiara Ambrosio during the recording of the album in the Britten Studio at Aldeburgh Music, Snape Maltings, Suffolk, UK in July 2014. Recording engineered by Rick Campion, assisted by Winther Robinson. The album and tour will be launched in Spring 2015. See birdradio.co.uk for more information, and for the blog.
Kabantu: Ulidzele (formerly known as Project Jam Sandwich) | Aldeburgh Residencies | Aldeburgh Music
Ranging from the music of Bulgaria to South Africa to Scotland, Kabantu (previously known as Project Jam Sandwich) concoct their own charismatic arrangements to create a varied, acoustic show of exhilarating improvisation, scorching rhythms and beautiful melody. Following a week-long Aldeburgh Residency, Project Jam Sandwich showcased their work in a concert entitled ‘Four Corners of the Globe’, based on pieces from four different continents and some of their more established repertoire.