The 68th Aldeburgh Festival of Music and the Arts runs from 12 to 28 June and features five HarrisonParrott artists.
Marking Pierre-Laurent Aimard’s seventh Festival as Artistic Director; he appears in a variety of concerts with the Festival’s Artist-in-Residence George Benjamin, including Ravel’s Piano Concerto with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Ligeti’s Piano Concerto with London Sinfonietta and Ravel’s Ma mère l’Oye in piano duo. Aimard also performs Schubert’s Piano Quintet with Quatuor Mosaïques and Chi-chi Nwanoku, Messiaen’s Quatuor pour la fin du temps and Elliott Carter’s Epigrams in the beautiful setting of Blythburgh Church, as well as a solo recital of music by Bach and Kurtág.
Countertenor Andreas Scholl returns to Aldeburgh to give a series of masterclasses to students of the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme, and on 13 June he performs a programme of English folksongs and songs from the Renaissance at Blythburgh Church with Tamar Halperin.
In celebration of Pierre Boulez’s 90th year, Susanna Mälkki conducts the Royal Academy of Music Manson Ensemble in the UK premiere of A Pierre Dream: A Portrait of Pierre Boulez on 17 June. This innovative multimedia piece, which mixes live performances of Boulez’s music with on-screen footage, was conceived by Gerard McBurney as part of Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s acclaimed ‘Beyond the Score’ series, and is performed with a specially commissioned set design by architect Frank Gehry.
On 20 June Tamara Stefanovich performs the world premiere of Visiones by Martin Suckling. The piece, for clarinet trio, was commissioned by Aldeburgh Festival and Tamara is joined by Mark Simpson (clarinet) and Jean-Guihen Queyras (cello). Tamara also appears with members of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra on 16 June to perform Mozart’s Quintet for Piano and Winds.
To close this year’s Festival, Oliver Knussen – a previous Artistic Director — returns to conduct the Britten-Pears Orchestra on 28 June in a programme of Britten, Schuller and McPhee.
