Page 285 - Media Coverage Book - 75th Aldeburgh Festival 2024

and Russian cellist Mtislav Rostropovich. The pair met at a concert
in the Royal Festival Hall in the autumn of 1960. Nine months later

Britten and Rostropovich premiered the composer’s first cello
sonata, inspired by and dedicated to the cellist.

The 1961 premiere was staged at Aldeburgh’s Jubilee Hall, a multi-
purpose performance space situated in the heart of the Aldeburgh
that accommodates around 250 audience members and exudes a
robust sense of Victorian seaside charm. In comparison, Snape

Maltings Concert Hall where the 75th-anniversary concert took
place, housed an audience nearly four times bigger, demanding a
considerably robust sound to fill the space. Pianist Steven Osborne

and cellist Alban Gerhardt easily met the demands of the hall, the
cellist’s mischievous wit in particular driving proceedings on and
making the surprise appearance of Ian Bostridge for a repeat of the
1961 encore of Bach all the more gratifying.

REWARDING CURIOUS AUDIENCES

Simon Lepper (piano) and Gweneth Ann-Rand in the first of three Messiaen Song Cycle
concerts