Page 561 - Media Coverage Book - 75th Aldeburgh Festival 2024

Messiaen: Song Cycles 1, Gweneth Ann Rand, Simon Lepper and

Rachel Jones at the Aldeburgh Festival | Live Review

Hattie Butterworth

Friday, June 21, 2024
A scintillating collaboration between soprano and artist brought Messiaen's

music to life

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Gweneth Ann Rand with Simon Lepper | Photo: Marcus Roth

Messiaen’s song cycles are undoubtedly a feast of colour. For the soprano Gweneth Ann Rand,
an opportunity to present the three of his song cycles for soprano and piano at the Aldeburgh
Festival meant collaborating with an artist to interpret his unique tonal palette.

In comes British artist Rachel Jones, who becomes more prolific year on year. Commissioned by

Rand to create painting animations to accompany the cycles, it became clear what Rand meant
when she said of Jones’s work ‘I saw her paintings and I heard Messiaen’.