Page 95 - Media Coverage Book - 75th Aldeburgh Festival 2024

the bright idea of turning the Victorian-built malt-house at Snape, situated about five
miles inland from Aldeburgh, into an 832-seat venue, Snape Maltings Concert Hall was
born. Officially opened by HM Queen Elizabeth II in 1967, the Snape Maltings Concert
Hall suffered serious fire damage two years later, re-opening in time for the Aldeburgh
Festival the following year.

The larger venue, of course, opened the festival to a much wider audience while it could
also attract much larger ensembles and orchestras, too, as opposed to the intimate (but
much-loved) Jubilee Hall. Ambitious as ever, though, Britten and Pears never stood still
and within five years they reclaimed more buildings on the site and established a centre
for talented young musicians.

The development and expansion of the site seems to be ongoing and in 2006 the festival purchased a
999-year lease on the Maltings’ complex investing around £14 million in new studios and rehearsal
spaces which came into being in 2009. Now the Creative Campus at the Maltings has four
performance venues and over 20 rehearsal and public spaces.

The Hoffmann Building, for instance, features two excellent spaces suitable for performances while
providing additional rehearsal rooms and a social area. The centrepiece of the building - aptly named
The Britten Studio - is cleverly designed offering an excellent and flexible acoustic with a high level of
sound insulation for recording. It’s ideal for orchestral rehearsals and can also be used as a 340-seat
venue too.

The smaller-scale building - Jerwood Kiln Studio - seats up to 80 people in a flexible configuration and
is a purposeful space for smaller groups to rehearse and suitably equipped for video and electro-
acoustic installations. And a nice touch, architecturally speaking, is to the fact that the venue retained
its double-height roof and much of the existing fabric of the original kiln structure.

Opened by HM Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother, in 1979, the Holst Library contains many of the
original contents donated by Imogen Holst, a bosom friend of Benjamin Britten and an artistic director
of the Aldeburgh Festival from 1956 to 1977. ‘The Gustav Holst Library will be a working library for the
use of students,’ she said. ‘It’s being called after him in gratitude for his music and his teaching.’

Open by appointment, the library comprises a large collection of books, scores and audio materials
covering many genres. Much of the stock is available, too, for searching on the web catalogue of the
Britten-Pears Library.