Page 287 - Media Coverage Book - 75th Aldeburgh Festival 2024

BBC Singers and Castalian String Quartet is noteworthy too.
Similarly, Vaughan Williams’s heartfelt Oboe Concerto performed by

Aldeburgh regular Nicholas Daniel and Britten Sinfonia. Britten was
never especially enamoured by Vaughan Williams’s contribution to
English music. What would he have made of hearing the passionate
rhapsodic lyricism in RVW’s score? I’d like to think he would have
reappraised his view.

ENCOUNTERS AND REFLECTIONS

Ever reliable, the pull of Aldeburgh has seen the past converge with
the present beyond simply the music programmed in concerts. In

one weekend, four CEOs spanning forty years of the Festival’s
history – Sheila Colvin, Jonathan Reekie, outgoing Roger Wright and
incoming Andrew Comden all attended concerts, maybe even all at

the same time. Colvin transitioned the organisation from its
Aldeburgh base to Snape. Reekie expanded the organisation to
multiple buildings and activities. Wright brought the disparate
elements together into a unified whole – artistic, legacy, and
business. What will Comden do next? And what does a former CEO

ponder about their successor, and how does that impact how they
reflect on their own tenure?

Sheila Colvin, a key figure in my time at the Festival, always struck
me as a bit of a trailblazer. Her no-nonsense spirit was a strong

motivating force, and her vulnerability offered much-appreciated
support when needed. Nearly thirty years later, I encountered her
late last week by chance me walking back from the shops, her
arriving in a taxi. She appeared strong, determined, and resolutely
self-deprecating: “I’m decrepit!” she declared as I helped her out of

the car. “I don’t believe a word of it,” I replied.