Page 38 - Aldeburgh Festival 2022 FINAL COVERAGE BOOK
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past. Wright is in favour of such working together “if festivals generally can be less
precious about who gets what first”.
One cloud on the horizon is Britten’s music coming out of copyright in 2047. A
foretaste came during lockdown, when £1m of royalty income from performances
was lost overnight.
Wright says Aldeburgh knows it cannot put off thinking about it until 2045. One
possible answer is to develop the last third of the Snape Maltings site that is derelict,
probably for accommodation for students and tutors. “That would be back to the
vision of Britten and Pears for a creative campus. It is in our sights, but represents a
huge capital project.”
In the meantime, all eyes are on the 2022 festival. The Queen’s jubilee will be marked
with music from her coronation year, such as the suite from Britten’s opera Gloriana.
A highlight of the tribute to Knussen will be the premiere of his unfinished orchestral
work Cleveland Pictures. A clutch of climate-change works includes Gregor A
Mayrhofer’s intriguing Recycling Concerto, featuring hundreds of pieces of rubbish
refashioned as percussion. As Wright says: “No standing still.”
Aldeburgh Festival 2022, June 3-26, brittenpearsarts.org
