Aldeburgh Festival

The Aldeburgh Festival is an English festival, devoted mainly to classical music. It takes place every year in June, in the Aldeburgh area of Suffolk, with the main concert hall located at Snape Maltings.

Related Topics:
English - Classical music - Aldeburgh - Suffolk - Snape Maltings

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The Festival was founded in 1948 by the composer Benjamin Britten, the singer Peter Pears and the librettist Eric Crozier, originally with the intention of providing a home for their touring opera company, the English Opera Group, but also envisaged as including poetry, drama, lectures and exhibitions of art and literature. The first festival was held from the 5th to 13th June 1948, with the main concert venue being Aldeburgh Jubilee Hall, which was a few doors away from Britten's house in Crabbe Street. It featured a performance of Albert Herring by the English Opera Group; Britten's newly-written St Nicholas Cantata, op. 42; and performances by Clifford Curzon and the Zorian String Quartet.

Related Topics:
Benjamin Britten - Peter Pears - Eric Crozier - English Opera Group - Albert Herring - St Nicholas Cantata - Clifford Curzon - Zorian String Quartet

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Over the years, the festival grew, and took in additional venues such as Aldeburgh's 15th century church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul and venues in nearby Orford, Blythburgh, and Framlingham. In the mid-1960s the Aldeburgh Festival acquired a new, much larger, concert hall, with the conversion of Snape Maltings. This was a mid-19th building, built by Newson Garrett as one of the largest barley maltings in East Anglia. By 1965, it was no longer in use as a maltings and was converted into a concert hall, whilst retaining much of the original character of the building, including the distinctive square roof-vents, typical of malt-houses. The new concert hall was opened by the Queen on 2 June 1967, at the start of the 20th Aldeburgh Festival.

Related Topics:
Orford - Blythburgh - Framlingham - Snape Maltings - East Anglia - Queen

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Two years later, on the first night of the 1969 Festival, the Concert Hall was destroyed by fire, leaving only the shell of the outer walls. That year's concerts had to be re-sited in other local local buildings but, by the following year, the hall had been rebuilt and was reopened by the Queen at the start of the 1970 Festival.

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The festival is now operated by Aldeburgh Productions, which also runs the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme (formerly the Britten-Pears School for Advanced Musical Studies) and Aldeburgh Residencies, a development programme offering bespoke training and development opportunities to both international and UK artists. These enterprises are seen as adding to the richness of the festival.

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The festival has always retained, a unique character, partly owing to its location in rural Suffolk, where its roots are close to those of Britten himself. The festival particularly promotes new music, fresh interpretations and the rediscovery of forgotten music. Several of Britten's operas were premiered at the festival, including A Midsummer Night's Dream (1960) and Death in Venice (1973). Harrison Birtwistle's Punch and Judy was also first heard there in 1968.

Related Topics:
Opera - A Midsummer Night's Dream - 1960 - Death in Venice - 1973 - Harrison Birtwistle - Punch and Judy - 1968

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The current Artistic Director is the composer, Thomas Adès, who joined the festival in 1999 at the age of only 28.

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