Aldeburgh Festival 2019
7 – 23 June
New music, old music, reeds, marshes, vast skies and the waves of the North Sea… Aldeburgh in June offers much more than you’d expect from a classical music festival.
Opening Weekend
The Hunting Gun
Friday 7 & Sunday 9 June
The UK premiere of Thomas Larcher’s highly-acclaimed first opera, based on the best-selling post-war Japanese Novella by Yasushi Inoue.
BBC Radio 3: The Verb Live
Friday 7 June
Poet Ian McMillan brought his Radio 3 ‘cabaret of the word’ The Verb for a special evening exploring the relationship between music and language, with guests Mark Padmore, Lavinia Greenlaw, Fiona Sampson and Bastard Assignments.
Castalian Quartet
Saturday 8 June
Sini Simonen violin
Daniel Roberts violin
Charlotte Bonneton viola
Christopher Graves cello
Joseph Haydn String Quartet Op.76 No.2 in D minor
Edmund Finnis String Quartet No.1 ‘Aloysius’ (Co-commission for the Aldeburgh Festival, UK premiere)
Benjamin Britten String Quartet No.2 in C, Op.36
Poetry and Music: The Holy Sonnets of John Donne
Saturday 8 June
Writer and broadcaster Kate Kennedy, poet Lavinia Greenlaw and singer Mark Padmore explore Donne’s poetry alongside Britten’s music, before a performance of Britten’s setting by Mark Padmore and Andrew West.
Paul Lewis
Saturday 8 June
Paul Lewis piano
Joseph Haydn Piano Sonata in E minor, Hob.XVI:34
Thomas Larcher Movement for Piano (Commission for the Aldeburgh Festival, world premiere)
Ludwig van Beethoven 33 Variations on a Waltz by Anton Diabelli, Op.120
Thomas Larcher and Friends
Sunday 9 June
Mark Padmore tenor
Thomas Larcher piano
Paul Lewis piano
Andrew West piano
Johann Sebastian Bach transcr. György Kurtág Chorales: four transcriptions for piano duet
Thomas Larcher Poems for solo piano
Franz Schubert Im Freien, D.880 (1826)
Larcher A Padmore Cycle for tenor and piano
Schubert Die Taubenpost, D.965a; Allegretto in C minor, D.915
Tenebrae
Sunday 9 June
Tenebrae
Nigel Short director
Philippe de Monte Super flumina Babylonis
William Byrd Mass for Four Voices
James MacMillan Tenebrae factae sunt
Byrd Ne irascaris Domine
MacMillan Tradiderunt me
Thomas Tallis Lamentations of Jeremiah I
MacMillan Jesum tradidit impius
Tallis Lamentations of Jeremiah II
MacMillan Miserere
Drive by Shooting
8, 10, 11, 12 & 15 June
Opera meets street art and animation
Brian Irvine music
John McIlduff writer, director
Recording by Doreen Curran, Sylvia O’Brien and Dan Reardon
RTÉ Concert Orchestra
Fergus Sheil conductor
Clodagh Deegan costume designer
Listening Walks
A chance to explore Snape Maltings’ stunning landscape and wildlife – a meeting point for all the site’s visitors.
First Week
Pierre-Laurent Aimard
Monday 10 June
Claude Debussy Élégie; Les soirs illuminés par l’ardeur du charbon
Anton Webern Variations, Op.27
Luigi Dallapiccola Quaderno musicale di Annalibera
Oliver Knussen Variations, Op.24
Charlotte Bray Bring Me All Your Dreams (Commission for the Aldeburgh Festival, world premiere)
Elliott Carter 90+; Two Diversions
George Benjamin Shadowlines
Maurice Ravel From Miroirs
Film: Charlie Chaplin shorts
Monday 10 June
Neil Brand piano
Easy Street
The Immigrant
The Adventurer
Film: Woman of the Dunes
Tuesday 11 June
(Japanese title: Suna No Onna) 1964
Directed by Hiroshi Teshigahara
Cast: Eiji Okada, Kyoko Kishida
Albion Quartet
Tuesday 11 June
Tamsin Waley-Cohen violin
Emma Parker violin
Ann Beilby viola
Nathaniel Boyd cello
Joseph Haydn String Quartet in C, Op.20 No.2
Freya Waley-Cohen Dust (Co-commission for the Aldeburgh Festival, world premiere)
Thomas Larcher Cold Farmer
Franz Schubert String Quartet in D minor, D.810 ‘Death and the Maiden’
Knussen Chamber Orchestra
Tuesday 11 June
Knussen Chamber Orchestra
Claire Booth soprano
Mark Padmore tenor
Ryan Wigglesworth conductor
Oliver Knussen Gong, from Four Late Poems and an Epigram of Rainer Maria Rilke, Op.23
Igor Stravinsky Septet
Knussen Scriabin Settings
Toru Takemitsu How Slow the Wind
Knussen O Hototogisu!
Benjamin Britten Nocturne, Op.60
Franz Schubert Symphony No.5
i c o n
Wednesday 12 June
UK Premiere
Frederik Neyrinck music
Sabryna Pierre libretto
Atelier Bildraum (Charlotte Bouckaert and Steve Salembier) direction, scenography
Lieselot De Wilde soprano (icon)
Tibo Vandenborre Mister Death
Orchestra Asko | Schönberg
Joey Marijs conductor
Stephen Hough
Wednesday 12 June
Stephen Hough piano
Johann Sebastian Bach arr. Ferruccio Busoni Chaconne, BWV 1004
Oliver Knussen Prayer Bell Sketch
Frédéric Chopin Sonata No.2 in B flat minor
Stephen Hough Sonata No.4 ‘Vida Breve’
Franz Liszt Funerailles
Hesse Lecture: Lavinia Greenlaw
Thursday 13 June
Into a stranger cavern: repetition, memory and image
Including a screening of the film The Sea is an Edge and an Ending written and directed by Lavinia Greenlaw
The Sea, The Sea
Thursday 13 June
An evening of music and words inspired by the sea
Mark Padmore tenor
Roderick Williams baritone
Julius Drake piano
Rory Kinnear narrator
BPYAP Alumni I
Friday 14 June
Danny Koo violin
Daniel Lebhardt piano
Benjamin Britten Suite, Op.6 for violin and piano
Britten Night-Piece, or Notturno for solo piano
Oliver Knussen Autumnal
Knussen Ophelia’s Last Dance
Ludwig van Beethoven Violin Sonata No.9 in A, ‘Kreutzer’, Op.47
Film: Oliver Knussen – Sounds from the Big White House
Friday 14 June
Introduced by director Barrie Gavin
Secret Theatre
Friday 14 June
Ulysses Ensemble
Geoffrey Paterson conductor
Oliver Knussen Coursing, Op.17
Benjamin Britten Sinfonietta, Op.1
Caterina di Cecca Ad sidera vultus (Commission for the Aldeburgh Festival, world premiere)
Colin Matthews Suns Dance
Tansy Davies inside out 2
Harrison Birtwistle Secret Theatre
Vox Luminis I
Friday 14 June
Vox Luminis
Lionel Meunier director
Johann Bach Unser Leben ist ein Schatten; Sei nun wieder zufrieden meine Seele
Johann Michael Bach Herr, ich warte auf dein Heil; Sei Lieber Tag Wilkommen; Nun Treten wir ins neue Jahr; Halt was du hast
Johann Christoph Bach Der Mensch vom Weibe geboren; Fürchte dich nicht; Lieber Herr Gott, wecke uns auf
Johann Ludwig Bach Das Blut Jesu Christi
Johann Ludwig Bach Das ist meine Freude
Johann Sebastian Bach Jesu, meine Freude
BPYAP Alumni II
Friday 14 June
House of Bedlam
Larry Goves
Kathryn Williams
Stephanie Tress
Carl Raven
BPYAA composers
Aaron Parker
Bnaya Halperin-Kaddari
Mayah Kadish
Zakia Fawcett
Michael Brailey
Poetry and Music: Who Are These Children?
Friday 14 June
Mark Padmore tenor
Andrew West piano
Don Paterson poet
Introduced by Kate Kennedy
Benjamin Britten Who are these children?, Op.84 (1969)