With 2021 heading towards its inexorable demise, news of events scheduled for 2022 hits my inbox and brings a smile to my face. I could do with some cheering up. I don’t want to be all doom and gloom about, wearing my heart on my sleeve (again), but it really can’t be overstated just how positive an impact a well-timed festival announcement can have, especially if that festival just happens to be situated in the most gorgeous (and arguably) perfect part of the UK.
The Aldeburgh Festival returns next year for its 73rd, spotlighting 50 years of Britten and Pears’ talent development scheme – The Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme, premiering 41 new works, and celebrating what would have been the 70th birthday of the late great much-loved composer and conductor Oliver Knussen.
Artists performing include Nicola Benedetti, composer and clarinettist Mark Simpson, pianist Clare Hammond, cellist Laura van der Heijden, chamber music from the Kaleidoscope Chamber Ensemble, The Hermes Experiment, and Piatti and Solem Quartets.
Composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s Ivor Award-winning work Catamorphosis features in a CBSO concert. There’s music too from organist Anna Lapwood with a performance of her transcription of Britten’s Four Sea Interludes. I spy too a performance on 4th June led by Mark Simpson featuring his blistering work for wind ensemble Geysir, and Mozart’s Gran Partita. There’s also a chance to hear the Echoes and Embers I heard at Lammermuir Festival earlier this year.
The press release is epic – running to 8 pages with detailed listings which are dizzying to look at. Visit the Britten Pears website and start dreaming of sunny days on the edge of a marsh looking out towards the North Sea. June 2022 looks set to be brilliant and be almost entirely based in East Suffolk.
