Pierre-Laurent Aimard oversees closing weekend of Aldeburgh

With the closing weekend of his second year as Artistic Director of the Aldeburgh Festival, Pierre-Laurent Aimard programmed a sparkling and thought-provoking juxtaposition of old and new music, aptly celebrating the unique and much-loved qualities which have long characterised this historic fortnight of music-making. Fiona Maddocks commented in The Observer: “The collision of opposites gives the Festival, co-founded in 1948 by Benjamin Britten and his partner, the tenor Peter Pears, its singular atmosphere”.

In something of a coup, Aimard succeeded in inviting Pierre Boulez to the Festival for the first time, both in conversation and as conductor of his Ensemble intercontemporain.  The latter’s programme was additionally significant for the inclusion of a second Aldeburgh Festival world premiere by Elliott Carter – his song cycle What Are Years. Alongside these beacons of modernity, the weekend also featured a stunning performance of Bach’s Mass in B Minor performed by John Eliot Gardiner, the English Baroque Soloists and the Monteverdi Choir. 

The Financial Times’ Richard Fairman gave his own take on Aimard’s importance to the festival: “Pierre-Laurent Aimard, pianist and artistic director, has set his sights on making Aldeburgh the summer destination of choice for the most distinguished composers of the day and the final weekend of this year’s festival displayed his pulling power… Aldeburgh had opened its arms to him and Boulez responded. What is certain is that the festival’s ability to present today’s most illustrious composers, and not just those from the UK, is crucially important.”

Again in her article for The Observer, Fiona Maddocks wrote tellingly of this year’s Festival highlights: “The fact that Pierre Boulez was the celebrated guest confirms the sense of Aldeburgh moving on but remaining true to its pioneering spirit. Where else would people pack into an airless auditorium in the middle of a perfect summer's day to hear two Frenchmen, Boulez and the festival's artistic director, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, conversing in English about periodicity, musical rebellion and associated lightweight topics? [Elsewhere,] the youthful Britten-Pears Orchestra, conducted by Oliver Knussen, gave dazzling accounts of George Benjamin's volatile Dance Figures and Knussen's gorgeously eloquent Horn Concerto. The Arcanto Quartet and Alexander Lonquich rounded off the festival, described by one Aldeburgh stalwart as "the best in 10 years", with an impassioned account of Schumann's Piano Quintet.”

Paul Driver summed up the iconic nature of this year’s Aldeburgh Festival in The Sunday Times, “Boulez was in the audience, and I reflected that a festival capable of boldly incorporating its critique and antithesis must be in robust health. Boulez is a powerful injection into the festival’s veins, and the link with the aged Carter has been nothing but rejuvenating.  When Boulez conducts a Carter premiere here with a French ensemble, you can’t but take Aldeburgh for a truly international concern.”