Page 557 - Media Coverage Book - 75th Aldeburgh Festival 2024

In Handel’s Organ Concerto in D minor, described in the 1948 festival programme book as being
‘distinguished by its noble grandeur’, certainly lived up to this proud statement as New Zealand-born
organist, Katherine Dienes-Williams, delivered an unfussed and technically-assured performance
playing on a hired portable organ that seemed light of tone but, nonetheless, produced a good broad
sound overall in a delightful and tuneful four-movement work showing how much Handel was the
‘tunesmith’ of his day. As an aside, Katherine is Organist and Master of the Choristers at Guildford
Cathedral and previously Director of Music at the Collegiate Church of St Mary, Warwick. She’s also
President of the Cathedral Organists’ Association, the first-ever female to hold this coveted role.

Providing a new work for this auspicious occasion fell to the Irish/British composer, Robin Haigh,
whose Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra (a co-commission by Britten Pears Arts and the Ulster
Orchestra) replaces Martin Shaw’s God’s Grandeur from the 1948 programme. It has been specially
written for Matilda Lloyd, a graduate of Trinity College, Cambridge and the Royal Academy of Music.
Currently, she’s a European Concert Hall Organisation Rising Star for the 2024/25 season (nominated
by the Barbican Centre London and Konserthuset Stockholm) thereby opening doors for her to
perform on some of Europe’s most prestigious stages.

Recent highlights, for example, saw Matilda appear with the Britten Sinfonia at the Wigmore Hall while
concerto appearances include her Polish début with Pomeranian Philharmonic, a UK tour with Bath
Festival Orchestra and performances with Malmö Symphony Orchestra, Rotterdam Sinfonia, BBC
Concert Orchestra, Manchester Camerata and the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie. Praise, indeed!

And praise, indeed, for Matilda’s marvellous and meticulous performance in Haigh’s new five-
movement trumpet concerto which follows on from his two previous concerti namely The
Dreamers (2022) scored for four trombones and 16 players and Concerto for Orchestra (2023).
However, LUCK marks his first concerto in the traditional format featuring a single soloist
accompanied by an orchestra in this case the Britten Sinfonia made up by a superb bunch of loyal
and utterly gifted players who performed so well offering plenty of room for Matilda to shine and blow
her own trumpet! And blow it, she most certainly did.

All the five movements held their interest particularly the second movement featuring screaming
woodwind and a couple of trombones enjoying a nice ‘musical conversation’ with one another with
Matilda edging in on it employing a muted trumpet while the lavish orchestral writing paraphrases a
moody and bluesy Gershwin-type score. The writing in the fourth movement saw the soloist showing
her mettle of her chosen instrument with a host of high staccato runs heard against an orchestra fully
alert to the exacting demands of the composer’s writing while in the last movement - which Haigh
describes as ‘a Netflix-drama version of classical music, grand but squeezed into a pop music
sensibility’ - a rush of demisemiquavers from the ‘golden’ trumpet girl, punctuated by percussion and
timpani more or less having the last word, brought this invigorating 20-minute piece to an exciting
close. As an aside, the title of the piece stems from the birth of the composer’s daughter, Marnie, thus
commemorating this celestial life event. Therefore, Good Luck to Robin and his wife. Cake all round,
eh!

The second half of the programme was saved for Britten’s lovely, serene and contemplative
cantata, Saint Nicolas, a sure favourite of mine. Spanning just 45 minutes, the scenario tells the story
of this eponymous saint of legend, mystery and so much more. Reputedly, he was hailed as a
wonderworker who brought children back to life, destroyed pagan temples, saved sailors from death
at sea and, as an infant, was only nursed two days a week while fasting the other five. Selling his
lands to feed the poor, he appealed to God to purge his angry soul while praying for sweet humility.

Britten enjoyed writing and working with amateur musicians particularly choirs. An exemplary case in
point is Saint Nicolas which was commissioned by Peter Pears’ old school, Lancing College, formerly
the College of St Mary and St Nicolas, West Sussex. Although the five parts require the skills of
professional musicians, Britten also wrote the work to accommodate less-experienced performers,
too, especially singers.

The title-role, written for Peter Pears, was admirably sung by tenor, Nick Pritchard, whose possessed
a good stage presence while his diction was crystal clear throughout. He was adept, too, at conjuring
up the mood and drama of each scene thereby stamping his authority on the saintly role overall