Britten-Pears Foundation

 

The Aldeburgh Festival of Music and the Arts

The Aldeburgh Festival of Music and the Arts was founded in 1948 by Benjamin Britten, Peter Pears and the writer and producer Eric Crozier. They first discussed the idea of holding a festival in Aldeburgh while travelling abroad with the newly formed English Opera Group during August 1947. Troubled by the expense and exertion of running a touring opera company, they wanted to establish a base for the English Opera Group at home.

programme from the first Aldeburgh Festival of Music

On their return to England, the feasibility of an Aldeburgh Festival was considered further with local residents; the response was positive and a Festival Committee appointed. It was agreed that performances of opera by the English Opera Group would form the nucleus of the festival and that the group would also drive the artistic direction and provide singers and instumentalists for recitals and chamber music. The first Aldeburgh Festival of Music and the Arts was held from 5th to 13th June 1948 with a varied programme of choral, orchestral and chamber concerts, recitals, exhibitions and lectures and three performances of Britten’s opera Albert Herring.

It had been Britten’s and Pears’s intention that the festival should be an annual and growing event and this was achieved partly through their active involvement. They regularly performed at the Festival, the former often appearing as conductor as well as pianist. They invited the participation of a number of visiting composers, including Copland, Henze, Kodály and Poulenc. Britten composed new works to be premiered at the Festival, including the operas The Little Sweep, Noye’s Fludde, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Death in Venice and the three church parables.

photograph by Nigel Luckhurst

Mstislav Rostropovich rehearsing with the Britten-Pears Orchestra at Snape Maltings, 1985

Many of the founders' friends, including some of the world's leading musicians, performed regularly at the Festival, often in premieres of works written specifically for them by Britten. Fruitful friendships were established at the Festival with artists such as Dennis Brain, Julian Bream, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Osian Ellis, and especially with the Soviet artists Rostropovich, Galina Vishnevskaya and Sviatoslav Richter.

Britten’s music has always taken an important place in Ffestival programming, though concerts also regularly include new and recent works by other composers. Britten and Pears were named as artistic directors in 1955; this team was later expanded to include, at various dates, Imogen Holst, Philip Ledger, Colin Graham, Steuart Bedford, Murray Perahia, Mstislav Rostropovich and Oliver Knussen.

photograph by Nigel Luckhurst

Ian Partridge, Peter Pears and Steuart Bedford rehearsing for Lennox Berkeley’s Four Ronsard Sonnets, June 1978

As audiences outgrew the Aldeburgh Jubilee Hall, Aldeburgh church and the other parish churches, halls and private houses of East Suffolk used as festival venues, the need for a dedicated festival concert hall became apparent. It was decided to convert part of a disused maltings at Snape. Funds were raised and Arup Associates were appointed architects. The new concert hall at Snape Maltings was opened by the Queen on 2 June 1967, the first day of the 20th Aldeburgh Festival. With these new facilities festivals could be planned on a larger scale than previously possible.

Over the years activities at Snape Maltings have continued to grow, events increasingly being organised at different times of the year rather than concentrated in a single June festival. These have included concerts during spring weekends and at Easter, a Snape Maltings Proms season and an October Britten festival. Today Aldeburgh Productions provides an extensive year-round programme of events and performances in addition to the thriving annual Aldeburgh Festival of Music and the Arts.

photograph by Nigel Luckhurst

Snape Maltings Concert Hall

Performances and events held during the Aldeburgh Festival, from 1948 to the present day, are well documented in the form of programme books, catalogues, leaflets, press reviews, photographs and recordings. The archive comprises similar materials for performances and events held at Snape Maltings Concert Hall and other venues outside the June festival season, from the 1950s to the present day. Administrative papers and committee minutes provide further information on the Aldeburgh Festival and related events, the aims and purpose of its founders, organisers and artistic directors, and the growth and development of the festival and of Snape Maltings as an artistic centre.