East
Easter at King’s When: 15-22 April
Where: King’s College, Cambridge
Tel: +44 (0)1223 769340
Web: www.kings.cam.ac.uk/easter
Things must have felt poignant for Stephen Cleobury as he conducted his last Nine Lessons service at Christmas. Now, the college’s retiring music director takes his leave of the Easter festival. He’s going out with a bang: cue the bass drum of the ‘Dies Irae’ in Verdi’s Requiem on Good Friday. More intimate are a song recital by tenor James Gilchrist and a meditation uniting the writings of Thomas Traherne and oboist Nicholas Daniel.
DON’T MISS:
Choir of King’s College, Cambridge
15 & 16 April
Scored for two choirs and orchestras, Bach’s St Matthew Passion returns tenor James Gilchrist to his alma mater in the role of the Evangelist. Matthew Rose sings Christus.
Norfolk and Norwich Festival When: 10–26 May
Tel: + 44 (0) 1603 766400 Web: nnfestival.org.uk
Like the Three Choirs Festival (see South), Norfolk and Norwich started life as an 18th-century choral meet. It hasn’t felt constrained by the weight of history, though – even though it’s a history that includes Sirs Henry Wood and Thomas Beecham as artistic directors. Today it’s a multi-arts extravaganza not shy of a little pizzazz. For 2019, the Maliancuban fusion of the Las Maravillas de Mali band and visceral acrobatics of circus company A Simple Space offset Beethoven’s mighty Ninth Symphony.
DON’T MISS:
Britten Sinfonia 25 May
Gerald Barry’s setting of excerpts from Nietzsche’s Also sprach Zarathustra partners the ‘Choral’ Symphony as conductor Thomas Adès’s Beethoven cycle with Britten Sinfonia reaches journey’s end.
OUR FESTIVAL CHOICE
Aldeburgh
When: 7-23 June
Tel: + 44 (0)1728 687110 Web: snapemaltings.co.uk
Where to begin with the 72nd edition of the festival that Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears created based on ‘a few concerts with a few friends’? My, how it’s grown. Take 2019’s artists-in-residence: composer Thomas Larcher’s opera
The Hunting Gun provides a UK premiere for opening night; soprano-conductor Barbara Hannigan appears in both roles; and tenor Mark Padmore explores the relationship between poetry and music. Plus, a new ensemble is named after the late composer-conductor
Oliver Knussen, 50 years after his first Aldeburgh commission aged just 17.
DON’T MISS:
Knussen Chamber Orchestra 11 June Ryan Wigglesworth conducts the new orchestra’s debut including a piece by himself written specially for the occasion. Works, too, by Knussen, Takemitsu, Schubert and, sung by Mark Padmore, Britten’s Nocturne.
King’s Lynn Festival
When: 14-27 July
Tel: +44 (0)1553 764864
Web: kingslynnfestival.org.uk
Right in the middle of the Festival falls the 50th anniversary of the moon landing, and King’s Lynn is reaching for the stars. It’s known a few, after all – Shakespeare himself reputedly trod the boards here. This time things are astronomical, though. Astronomistcomposer William Herschel is included in a concert by the London Handel Players and Tom Watts’s Creation of the Universe is performed by the Berkeley Ensemble. With their feet firmly on planet Earth, meanwhile, are the Endellion Quartet, guitarist John Williams and, accompanied by Piers Lane, violinist Tasmin Little.
DON’T MISS:
Sirinu 16 July
The intrepid early music group’s ‘Sounding Space’ surfs works about the solar system from the Middle Ages to the present day, including Dowland’s What Poor Astronomers Are They, and Handel’s Total Eclipse.
North Norfolk Music Festival
When: 9-17 August
Tel: +44 (0)1328 730357
Web: northnorfolkmusicfestival.com
With its ceiling adorned with woodcarved angels, the beautiful church of South Creake provides the perfect setting for this year’s musical feasts. Schubert’s music provides something of a thread in Die schöne Müllerin courtesy of baritone James Newby as well as the composer’s last three quartets played by the Navarra String Quartet. Piano recitals by Tim Horton and Melvyn Tan deliver Brahms in spades, while cellist Alice Neary refreshes with solo Britten, Telemann and Bach.
DON’T MISS:
Katherine Broderick 11 August The soprano performs a luscious programme of songs by Fauré and Debussy, plus Wagner’s intense Wesendonck Lieder.