"The annual Aldeburgh Festival, arguably the best musical event in Britain”
Charlotte Higgins, Guardian, 2009
Charlotte Higgins is certainly right about the Aldeburgh Festival, founded by Benjamin Britten, Peter Pears and Eric Crozier in 1948. It has long been one the truly great international festivals of music and arts. My own visits to the Aldeburgh festival took place as early as the end of the 80´s and the early 90´s. During later years I have followed the festival only through the media, but it seems to have adjusted well to changing times and is still offering some of the finest classical music and artists.
In addition to the high artistic level, the Aldeburgh Festival has something that no other festival has: The fabulous Snape Maltings concert hall - with world class accoustics - surrounded by beautiful Suffolk scenery. The great Austrian pianist Alfred Brendel describes it so well:
‘Snape Maltings is one of those rare artistic places where the buildings, the people who visit and work there, the magical setting, come together and enable you to do something out of the ordinary.’
Alfred Brendel
For those interested in knowing more about the history of the Aldeburgh Festival and the music of Benjamin Britten the Britten-Pears foundation site is a good place to start.
A short history of the Aldeburgh Festival and the Britten-Pears legacy, made by Lippy films in 2004:
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