Aldeburgh Festival 2011

The Aldeburgh Festival of Music and the Arts is now in its 64th year. The event offers a mix of concerts, operas, masterclasses, films and open air performances at different venues in the Aldeburgh/Snape area in Suffolk. BBC Radio 3 are heavily involved as are Arts Council England. The festival runs from Friday 10th June to Sunday 26th June 2011. This year Pierre-Laurent Aimard is artistic director.

Line-up

Friday 10 June

CBSO and Simon Rattle
Former Festival Artistic Director Sir Simon Rattle conducts a programme of Mahler and Messiaen in his first Festival appearance in two decades
Snape 7pm

Saturday 11 June

Spira Mrabilis I
Performing without a conductor, major symphonies are performed as if chamber music
Snape 11am

Contrasts
György Kurtág Eight Duos Bartók Contrasts Erkki-Sven Tüür Conversio Iiro Rantala Gigi, plus Improvisations and Finnish Tango music
Aldeburgh Church 3pm

The Rape of Lucretia
Cast including Ian Bostridge, Peter Coleman-Wright, Angelika Kirchschlager (making her Aldeburgh debut), along with conductor Oliver Knussen bring Britten's opera to life
Snape 7.30pm

Sunday 12 June

Festival Service
The traditional opening Festival Service, led by the Revd Canon Nigel Hartley
Aldeburgh Church 10.30am

Open Air
A Musical Surprise
An impromptu performance by Festival artists
Aldeburgh, by the Moot Hall 12.30pm

A tribute to György Ligeti
A line-up of musicians to commemorate, celebrate and honour one of music's great originals

Le Poème Rhythmique
Mira Calix and Memo Akten's new composition draws inspiration from Ligeti's La Poème Symphonique for 100 metronomes and Varèse's La Poème Electronique
Jerwood Kiln Studio, Snape from 2.30pm

Ligeti and his legacy
Ligeti biographer and founder of the Huddersfield festival, Richard Steinitz explores Ligeti's music and sheds new light on the composer's horn trio
Britten Studio, Snape 3.15pm

Homage to Ligeti
Music by Ligeti, Messiaen and Nancarrow – with Pierre-Laurent Aimard and friends
Britten Studio, Snape 4.30pm

Collage-Montage
The ghost of Bartók lingers behind an unbroken sequence that includes Eötvös' evocative Kosmos, Kurtág's piano games and the complex but clearly discernible minimalism of Ligeti's writing for two pianos.
Britten Studio, Snape 7.30pm

Improvisations and Electronics
After Collage-Montage, Daniel Ciampolini takes up the thread of the solo percussion repertoire with his own bewitching improvisations
Britten Studio, Snape 9.30pm

Monday 13 June

Rehearsal Session
This Festival's resident ensemble Spira Mirabilis are throwing the doors open
Britten Studio, Snape 10am

Violin and Piano Duos Masterclasses
With Pekka Kuusisto, violin and pianist, Alasdair Beatson
Peter Pears Recital Room, Snape 2.30pm-5.30pm

James Gilchrist
Purcell Sacred songs from Harmonia Sacra Britten The Holy Sonnets of John Donne Folk song arrangements by Britten, Quilter and Ravel
Orford Church 3pm

The Rape of Lucretia
Second performance
Snape 7.30pm

Tuesday 14 June

Violin and Piano Duos Masterclasses
With Pekka Kuusisto, violin and pianist, Alasdair Beatson
Peter Pears Recital Room, Snape 10.30am-1.30pm

Film: Resurrection
Leonard Bernstein conducts Mahler Symphony No.2
Dramatising the vision of the last judgment conjured up by Mahler
Aldeburgh Cinema 11am

Christophe Rousset harpsichord
Handel Suite in D minor HWV437; Suite G minor HWV432 Louis Couperin Suite in C minor François Couperin Eighth Ordre from Second Book of Pieces de Clavecin
Blythburgh Church 3pm

Zimmermann and Friends
Tabea Zimmermann viola Jörg Widmann clarinet Kirill Gerstein piano
Snape 7.30pm

Wednesday 15 June

Festival Walk I – Shingle and Horses
Take in the Martello Towers up to the Suffolk Punch Trust's headquarters in Hollesley Bay
Depart Moot Hall, Aldeburgh. Coaches from 9.30am

Open Rehearsals - Britten–Pears Orchestra
Coached by violinist and director Pekka Kuusisto and Sir Colin Davis, the Britten–Pears Orchestra are preparing two programmes featuring highlights of the wind and string ensemble repertoires respectively
Britten Studio, Snape 10am, 2pm

Spira Mirabilis II
Schubert Symphony No.4 in C minor 'Tragic'
Playing without a conductor Spira Mirabilis blow the dust off even the most familiar repertoire
Snape 8pm

Thursday 16 June

Film: Lost Town
Two visionary young architects and the myth of Dunwich, the sunken town on the east coast of Suffolk
Aldeburgh Cinema 3pm

Arcanto Quartet with Jörg Widmann
Berg Lyric Suite Mozart Clarinet Quintet
The Arcanto Quartet enters its tenth year in 2011, with two concerts at Aldeburgh
Snape 7.30pm

The Aldeburgh Festival of Music and the Arts is now in its 64th year. The event offers a mix of concerts, operas, masterclasses, films and open air performances at different venues in the Aldeburgh/Snape area in Suffolk. BBC Radio 3 are heavily involved as are Arts Council England. The festival runs from Friday 10th June to Sunday 26th June 2011. This year Pierre-Laurent Aimard is artistic director.

Friday 17 June

Britten–Pears Alumni I: European Festival Academies
Haydn Quartet Op.77 No.1 Francisco Coll García New work (world premiere) Szymanowski Quartet No.2 Britten Quartet No.1
Jubilee Hall, Aldeburgh 11am

BPO Winds
Pierre-Laurent Aimard piano Jamie Man conductor
Messiaen Oiseaux Exotiques Mozart Serenade in B flat K361
Snape 2pm

Festival Masterclass
A group of young singers and pianists work on Schwanengesang and other late Schubert songs with Matthias Goerne
Britten Studio, Snape 3.30pm

Hesse Students Concert The first of the popular end-of-week concerts by music students who assist in the running of the Festival concerts
Pumphouse, Aldeburgh 5pm

BPO Strings
James Gilchrist tenor Pekka Kuusisto violin/director
Tippett Fantasia Concertante on a theme of Corelli Bach Violin Concerto in E Britten Les Illuminations
Snape 8pm

Saturday 18 June

Arcanto Quartet
Antje Weithaas, Daniel Sepec violin Tabea Zimmermann viola Jean-Guihen Queyras cello Britten Quartet No.2 Webern Six Bagatelles Brahms Quartet in B flat Op.67
Snape 11am

Composer Portrait: Marco Stroppa
Using his own innovations in computer-generated sound and acoustic displacement
Britten Studio, Snape 3pm

Goerne & Aimard: Die schöne Müllerin
Matthias Goerne's Aldeburgh debut is a festival within a Festival - together with Pierre-Laurent Aimard they journey together through the three big Schubert song cycles
Snape 8pm

'...of Silence'
...of Silence is a piece of Stroppa's 'chamber electronics', an exploration of the visual presence of the soloist versus his (electronic) invisibility. This is framed by Berio and Scelsi's explorations of instrumental timbre, and a work by father-figure of 'Spectral Music' Gérard Grisey
Britten Studio, Snape 10pm

Sunday 19 June

Open Air
Semaphore Brass
The chance to see semaphore as an alternative conducting tool
Aldeburgh Beach – between the North & South Lookout Towers 12 noon (ends approx 1pm)

Bach Cantatas and Motets
brought by La Nuova Musica
Snape 3pm

Goerne & Aimard: Winterreise
The wanderer's frozen travels through a bitter and cheerless landscape in some of Schubert's greatest lieder
Snape 7pm

Les Talens Lyriques
A twilight concert weaves music by Charpentier into Couperin's celebrated works for the darkness of Holy Week
Aldeburgh Church 9.30pm

Monday 20 June

Hesse Lecture
Antonio Damasio
Why did humans ever create music? Why do humans gravitate to music today, apparently in increasing numbers? What are the consequences of listening to music?
Jubilee Hall, Aldeburgh 3pm

Goerne & Aimard: Schwanengesang
Schubert's final songs
Snape 8pm

Tuesday 21 June

Britten, Rostropovich and the Cello
This day is a celebration of a remarkable triptych of solo works, and one musician's imprint on Britten's music and on Aldeburgh

Britten and Rostropovich
Journalist and broadcaster, Edward Seckerson leads a discussion with filmmaker and Britten scholar John Bridcut and cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras
Jubilee Hall, Aldeburgh 11.30am

Britten Cello Suites
Jean-Guihen Queyras cello Cellists of the Britten – Pears Orchestra Jamie Man conductor
Concert 1
Britten First Suite for Cello Op.72 Kodaly Sonata
Snape 6pm

Concert 2
Marco Stroppa Ay there's the rub Christian Mason Incandescence (world premiere)
Britten Second Suite for Cello Op.80
Snape 8pm

Concert 3
Boulez Messagesquisses Ligeti Sonata Britten Third Suite for Cello Op.87
Snape 9.30pm

Wednesday 22 June

Festival Walk II: St Peter and other Saints
A walk with the Saints of mid Suffolk, viewing wall paintings in ancient churches Depart Moot Hall, Aldeburgh Coaches from 9.30am

Everlasting Light
Director Netia Jones and EXAUDI create in Sizewell a meditation on light, energy, the collapse of time and the fabric of the entire universe – and our extraordinary and ambitious methods of survival within it
Sizewell Beach Promenade performance at 9pm, starting at Sizewell Beach Refreshment Café

Thursday 23 June

Songs without Words
Haydn and Beethoven frame some of Birtwistle's most recent chamber works, performed by musicians closely associated with his music
Aldeburgh Church 3pm

Revenge of the Folksingers
This arresting collaboration unites period instrument specialists and some of the leading lights on the UK folk scene to explore each other's homelands and the disputed borders in between – with enthralling and occasionally raucous results
Snape 8pm

Everlasting Light
A reflection on Sizewell
Second performance
Sizewell Beach Promenade performance at 9pm, starting at Sizewell Beach Refreshment Café

Friday 24 June

Britten–Pears Alumni II: Young Singers
Two participants in last summer's vocal masterclasses return for rare performances of major song cycles by Copland and Vaughan Williams
Jubilee Hall, Aldeburgh 11am

Films: A Piano Double Bill Director Ben Niles allows the dedicated crafts people involved to tell their own story, interspersed with contributions from Steinway's clients, including Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Hélène Grimaud and Harry Connick Jr
Aldeburgh Cinema 3pm

Hesse Students Concert
The second of the end-of-week concerts by music students who assist in the running of the Festival concerts
Pumphouse, Aldeburgh 5pm

Elisabeth Leonskaja
Leonskaja combines the extraordinary Wanderer fantasy with one of the monumental triumvirate of piano works from the last year of the Schubert's life
Snape 8pm

Everlasting Light
A reflection on Sizewell
Third performance
Sizewell Beach Promenade performance at 9pm, starting at Sizewell Beach Refreshment Café

Saturday 25 June

Elias Quartet and Guests
Lucia Cesaroni soprano Steuart Bedford piano
Mendelssohn Quartet in F minor Op.80 Schubert Der Hirt auf dem Felsen D965 Britten Quartet No.3
Snape 11am

BBC Discovering Music: Ockeghem
Preceding this afternoon's Ensemble Organum performance, Stephen Johnson, Marcel Peres and his vocal ensemble uncover the unique sound of Johannes Ockeghem's 15th-century Requiem Mass
Blythburgh Church 2pm

Ensemble Organum
The earliest known setting of the Mass for the Dead in the hands of one of its most celebrated interpreters. Enhanced by the inclusion of plainchant and enriched by Blythburgh's ancient splendour, this is a rare opportunity to hear a truly pioneering European ensemble in strange and sensual music that still resonates more than five centuries on
Blythburgh Church 4pm

Eötvös and London Sinfonietta
London Sinfonietta and EXAUDI vocal ensemble with Peter Eötvös conductor
A concert of three composers (Stroppa, Eötvös and Boulez) connected to Paris centre for composition research, IRCAM and three explorations of the movement of sound in space
Snape 7.30pm

Sunday 26 June

Open Air
All Voices to the Beach
Simon Limbrick, Ellie Moran and Aldeburgh Music's apprentices will work together with singers of all abilities from the local community as part of this 'Aldeburgh Voices' project – this is your chance to join in!
Aldeburgh Beach – between the North & South Lookout Towers 12 noon

City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Birmingham Contemporary Music Group Pierre-Laurent Aimard piano Colin Currie percussion Alexandra Wood violin Oliver Knussen conductor
Stravinsky Scherzo a la Russe Helen Grime Everyone Sang Stravinsky Variations: Aldous Huxley in memoriam Elliott Carter Conversations (world premiere) Charlotte Bray Caught in Treetops Stravinsky Petrushka (1947 version)
Snape 4pm

Tickets

All events are separate so prices vary. To buy tickets, click here.

Accommodation

This event does not have camping but there are a number of hotels, hostels and guest houses in the area.

More information will be here when available.

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