Programming details for next year’s Aldeburgh Festival (13th – 29th June 2025) sees a series of commissions that underline the reputations of many British composers whose names form an important part of the UK’s classical music scene.
Daniel Kidane, Tom Coult and Cheryl Frances-Hoad feature in the 76th Festival alongside new music from Ivor’s award-winning Gavin Higgins, plus an opening night operatic premiere from Colin Matthews — his first work for the stage.
Matthews’ new opera A Visit to Friends with a libretto by William Boyd is inspired by Chekhov’s short story of the same name, and Boyd’s Chekhovian play LONGING. The opera within an opera features four characters who, in the process of playing roles, finding themselves mirroring the characters they’re playing. All very meta. And all very much up Thoroughly Good’s strasse, so to speak.
Aldeburgh will premiere Daniel Kidane’s new String Quartet, alongside seven other works by him. There are also new works by Brian Elias, Sasha Scott, Gavin Higgins, Cheryl Frances-Hoad and Tyshawn Sorey, plus a composer spotlight for Helen Grime, whose violin concerto will be performed by Leila Josefowicz and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Leila also pops up in a performance of Colin Matthews Paraphrases with horn player Paul Watkins and pianist brother Huw.
Celebrated tenor and former Britten Pears Young Artist Allan Clayton fronts a number of key events at next year’s Festival, providing opportunities to revisit the musical language of Tom Coult (whose opera at Aldeburgh 2023 was enthusiastically received by those present). There are also performances of Britten’s Nocturne, Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo, and Our Hunting Fathers, plus the original arrangement of Vaughan Williams’ On Wenlock Edge, and Mark Anthony-Turnage’s Refugee
In addition to Allan Clayton, other performers venturing to the East Suffolk coast include Nathan Amaral, Benjamin Appl, James Baillieu, Lotte Betts-Dean, Sophie Bevan, Claire Booth, George Fu, Christopher Glynn, Ben Goldscheider, Juliet Fraser, Anu Komsi, Sam Lee, Nick Pritchard, Mishka Rushdie Momen, Sean Shibe, Ian Tindale, Tamsin Waley-Cohen and Alisa Weilerstein.
After a few weeks hiatus due to a family bereavement, details of next year’s Aldeburgh Festival released earlier this week ushers in a much-needed return to normality for Thoroughly Good. The programme features a bumper crop of events, artists, and composers — a mix of old guard and new talent that continues the line from Britten’s founding Festival. There is much new and relatively unfamiliar to tempt the curious minded, and a welcome return too for fringe events in various venues across Aldeburgh. In this way, the 76th feels like a return to pre-COVID Festivals, unifying Britten-Pears Arts in Snape where principal events are staged with its spiritual home in the coastal town in Aldeburgh.
It’s difficult to see this wholly the work of new CEO Andrew Combden, given so much of arts programming has to be done years in advance; the spirit of outgoing CEO Roger Wright surely lingers on the sea air. Regardless of provenance, the mere idea of next year’s festival makes the booking of accommodation for six months a task that rivals making Christmas preparations. Bagsy one of the apartments on the sea front for the entire three weeks.
Aldeburgh Festival 2025 New Music
World Premieres
Colin Matthews: A Visit to Friends (13 June)
Colin Matthews: String Quartet No. 6 (14 June)
EXAUDI: Book of Flames and Shadows (first live performance; 14 June)
Film: Solitude with Schubert (15 June)
Sasha Scott: New Commission (BPA co-commission; 16 June)
Gavin Higgins: Speak of the North (BPA co-commission; 17 June)
Cheryl Frances-Hoad: New Commission for Ensemble Renard (BPA commission; 20 June)
New Music Now: 6 world premieres from Britten Pears Young Composers (20 June)
Tom Coult: New work for Allan Clayton and Dunedin Consort (BPA commission; 21 June)
Juliet Fraser: Lament (BPA co-commission; 21 June)
Brian Elias: Horn Concerto (BPA commission; 22 June)
Tyshawn Sorey: New work (23 June)
Daniel Kidane: New String Quartet (BPA commission; 24 June)
Colin Matthews: Paraphrases (25 June)
Britten, completed Hughes: Funeral March (29 June)
Debussy, arr. Colin Matthews: Images Book 2 (29 June)
UK premieres
Betsy Jolas: Quartet No. 7 (18 June)
Malcom Bruno new edition: Markus Passion (18 June)
Helen Grime: Violin Concerto (21 June)
