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Our Own Festival

Donald Macleod looks back on the founding of Benjamin Britten’s music festival at Aldeburgh.

Donald Macleod looks back on the founding of Benjamin Britten’s music festival at Aldeburgh.

It was while travelling a long way from Suffolk, on their way to Switzerland, that Peter Pears is supposed to have said to Benjamin Britten: “Why don’t we have a festival in Aldeburgh?â€

On the face of it, an eccentric idea to think you could have a music festival in that relatively awkward to get to corner of East Anglia, but the Aldeburgh Festival quickly established itself a great success. It rooted Britten ever more deeply in Suffolk, as well as providing an expression of his rootedness.

Albert Herring, “Albert the Goodâ€
Christopher Gillett, tenor
Northern Sinfonia
Steuart Bedford, conductor

Saint Nicolas (excerpt)
Mark Le Brocq, tenor
Â鶹ԼÅÄ Concert Orchestra
Crouch End Festival Chorus
Coldfall Primary School Choir
David Temple, conductor

Noye’s Fludde, “It is good for to be stillâ€
Coull String Quartet
Members of Endymion Ensemble and School’s Orchestra Salisbury & Chester
City of London Sinfonia
Richard Hickox and David Horlock (conductors)

Lachrymae (reflections on a song by John Dowland)
Kim Kashkashian, viola
Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra
Dennis Russell Davies, conductor

Canticle ii: Abraham and Isaac
Jean Rigby, soprano
Philip Langridge, tenor
Steuart Bedford, piano

59 minutes

Music Played

  • Benjamin Britten

    Albert Herring, Op 39, Act 1, No 4, Albert the good

    Orchestra: Royal Northern Sinfonia. Conductor: Steuart Bedford. Singer: Christopher Gillett.
    • NAXOS : 8-660107-08.
    • NAXOS.
    • 11.
  • Benjamin Britten

    St Nicolas, Op 42 (Nicolas and the pickled boys)

    Choir: Crouch End Festival Chorus. Choir: Coldfall Primary School Choir. Orchestra: Â鶹ԼÅÄ Concert Orchestra. Conductor: David Temple. Singer: Mark le Brocq.
    • SIGNUM : SIGCD649.
    • SIGNUM.
    • 7.
  • Benjamin Britten

    Noye's Fludde, Op 59 "It is good for to be still"

    Ensemble: Coull Quartet. Ensemble: Members Of Endymion Ensemble. Orchestra: School'S Orchestra Salisbury & Chester. Conductor: Richard Hickox.
    • Erato 3499232.
    • Erato.
    • 19.
  • Benjamin Britten

    Lachrymae, Op 48a (Reflections on a song of Dowland)

    Performer: Kim Kashkashian. Orchestra: Stuttgarter Kammerorchester. Conductor: Dennis Russell Davies.
    • ECM : 439-611-2.
    • ECM.
    • 2.
  • Benjamin Britten

    Canticle II: Abraham and Isaac, Op 51

    Performer: Steuart Bedford. Singer: Philip Langridge. Singer: Jean Rigby.
    • COLLINS CLASSICS : 148-12.
    • COLLINS CLASSICS.
    • 2.

Broadcast

  • Thu 1 Jul 2021 12:00

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