Page 543 - Media Coverage Book - 75th Aldeburgh Festival 2024

It is easy to hear Vaughan Williams’s concerto as elegiac, passionate, skittish and even a
little mystical. However, Daniel’s manner of playing it brought to mind Miles Davis during his
Cool period. His tone, his phrasing, even the way he held his oboe seemed calculated to
conjure up an image far removed from the pastoral idyll that this work usually evokes. In the
slow movement I was lulled into feeling the sultry air to which Davis smooches in Sketches
of Spain. The atmospheric and characterful playing of the Britten Sinfonia lent limpid
support to Daniel’s smooth lines and animated arabesques – washes of muted colour to the
one and a string of fine-grained interjections to the other. The sight of the piper, resplendent
in his cloak of lapidary brilliance and set against the monochrome arc of the ensemble, was
suitably celebrational.

Kathryn Rudge (Sāvitri)
© Angus Cooke
It was great to hear the works of the Holsts on the same programme. Imogen was one of
the stalwarts that helped establish the festival and was a hard-working assistant to Britten
for many years; Gustav had in Vaughan Williams a close friend and loyal supporter. The
daughter’s Suite, a piece for strings from the 1940s, showed her to have a voice distinct
from the father, and the Britten Sinfonia honoured it with a fine performance: it was full of
grace, warmth and tenderness. Two pieces from the father’s “Indian Period” – settings of
his own translations from Sanskrit – are amongst his best works. The third set of Choral
Hymns from the Rig Veda, scored for women’s voices and harp, is a good example of the
composer’s facility with word-setting. It was given a richly nuanced reading by Britten
Sinfonia Voices, directed by Eamonn Dougan.