Page 330 - Media Coverage Book - 75th Aldeburgh Festival 2024

The main draw of the 1961 recital was the premiere of Britten’s Cello Sonata,
written especially for Rostropovich. Its shifting harmonies and sometimes

obscure melodies retain a freshness, especially in the hands of cellist Alban

Gerhardt and pianist Steven Osborne.

In 1961, the audience’s reception was so warm the soloists reprised the Scherzo-
Pizzicato of the sonata, and then were joined by Peter Pears on stage for a Bach

aria. The new, meticulous recreation brought on star tenor Ian Bostridge for that

second encore, an addition that was ecstatically received.

An understanding of audience needs is, of course, critical. Never was more
serious an error of judgement made than when Chesney Hawkes, on stage once

at a club in Reading, attempted to play some new material. We wanted to

harness memories connected with his big hit song, not to hear the musician as
an artist (sorry). Hawkes finally gave in – he might as well have performed his No

1 hit The One and Only on a loop for the entire set.

One way for revived bands to reconnect with fans is to stick with the hits, as Air

did earlier this year when they performed 1998 album Moon Safari in its entirety
on tour, including a show at the Royal Albert Hall. But Jean-Benoît Dunckel, one-

half of the Parisian duo, has also been working on a very different project,
composing his first-ever ballet, Möbius Morphosis. The work, commissioned as

part of the Paris Cultural Olympiad, blends electronics, choral music and

percussion – with a hint of Sexy Boy in the opening track to keep the old timers
happy.

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