Coming up
Tuesday 21 June 2011
Aldeburgh Festival
Britten and Rostropovich
Celebrated by Edward Seckerson, John Bridcut and Jean-Guihen Queyras
‘I immediately realized this was a new way of playing the cello, in fact almost a new, vital way of playing music ... He asked me to write a piece for him, which was my cello sonata written “on condition that he came to Aldeburgh!”’
In 1960, Rostropovich’s uninhibited playing so fires Britten’s imagination that he embarks on a sequence of cello works that opens up a new seam of musical inspiration. Journalist and broadcaster, Edward Seckerson leads a discussion with filmmaker and Britten scholar John Bridcut and cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras.
Britten was not alone in being inspired by Rostropovich. The cellist premiered 108 new works from composers including Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Lutoslawski, Penderecki and Dutilleux. John Bridcut introduces his new documentary Rostropovich: the Genius of the Cello charting the life of this versatile and influential musician. It includes new footage of the first performance of Britten’s Cello Symphony in Moscow in 1964. This screening, ahead of the
transmission on BBC Four, will be the film’s premiere.
Jubilee Hall, Aldeburgh 11.30am, panel discussion (ends approx 12.40pm)
Aldeburgh Cinema 2pm, screening of Rostropovich:The Genius of the Cello (ends approx 3.45pm)
Rostropovich The Genius of the Cello
World premiere screening by kind permission of BBC Television.
Written and produced by John Bridcut.
Photography Vaughan Matthews, Sound Paul Paragon, Cellist Xavier Phillips,
Consultant Elizabeth Wilson, Film Editor Samuel Santana,
Executive Producer Philip Armstrong-Dampier.
An ITN Production
Jubilee Hall, Aldeburgh and Aldeburgh Cinema
Timings - see above
Tickets £12 (includes free entry to film)
Under 27s half price
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65th ALDEBURGH FESTIVAL
SPRING 2012
For a seating plan of the Concert Hall and more information click here
BOX OFFICE
Snape Maltings Concert Hall Visitor Centre: Mon-Sat 9.30am-4.30pm and two hours prior to concerts
Aldeburgh High Street: Mon-Sat 9.30am-4.30pm
Tel. 01728 687110
boxoffice@aldeburgh.co.uk
EXHIBITIONS
Click here for details about forthcoming exhibitions
Britten, Rostropovich and the Cello
It is 50 years since the premiere of Britten’s Cello Sonata, given by Mstislav Rostropovich and the composer in the Jubilee Hall. After a decade almost entirely focussed on vocal music and opera, in Rostropovich the composer found an instrumental muse arguably equal in inspiration to that provided by Pears’ voice.
Britten produced a masterful series of works for the cello and the impact of this musical friendship on the composer and his still fledgling Aldeburgh Festival was enormous. This day is a celebration of a remarkable triptych of solo works, and one musician’s imprint on Britten’s music and on Aldeburgh.
Supported by Selman and Suzanne Selvi