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An awesome and ridiculous film that leaves you thrilled beyond the point of your natural endurance
2012
Theatre
The show has suddenly become quite wonderful, and the galvanising factor is the terrific stage debut of Melanie C
Blood Brothers
Music
The British pop music industry may be eating itself but if Muse are the pick of what it can offer the world in 2010 then British music is in rude health indeed
Muse
I was smitten by both Gilberts enormous luxuriant moustache and the intelligence and nuance of this highly entertaining play
I totally recommend Babbo to anyone who is looking for really good and traditional Italian food
Always been a fan but never seen them live. I was ecstatic to be part of this epic event. WOW!
London,
Fiona Maddocks's rating
Reader rating
Mesmerising: French pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard
This year's Aldeburgh Festival, bristling with musical adventure, is the last under the directorship of composer Thomas Adès. In his decade at the helm, he and his team have broadened artistic horizons while still, miraculously, maintaining the festival’s unique atmosphere as established 60 years ago by Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears.
In the past few days alone, you could sample contemporary masterpieces, Schubert lieder with conductor Antonio Pappano in the role of accompanist (to Ian Bostridge) or ancient polyphony by one of the earliest known composers, Guillaume de Machaut.
The luminous, unearthly sounds of his Messe de Notre Dame, sung by Ensemble Organum in a sun-filled Blythburgh Church, proved mesmerising. This specialist medieval group, attached to the French monastery of Moissac, brought a raw, wild energy to Machaut’s ear-bending harmonies.
Another virtuosic set of voices, Exaudi, shone in Byrd, Rihm and Xenakis at Aldeburgh Church, while the Philharmonia, on top form, gave an exciting concert at the Maltings conducted by Oliver Knussen, featuring Harrison Birtwistle’s darkly glittering Night’s Black Bird and Schumann’s exuberant Konzertstück for Four Horns.
Aldeburgh is expanding mentally and physically. The Red House, Britten’s home-cum-shrine, has at last opened its doors to the public. A new 400-seat Britten Studio is being built at Snape.
Above all, the choice of French pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard — not a composer — as director from 2009 shows boldness and imagination. Aimard has been much in evidence, performing Bach’s Art of Fugue interspersed with Jatekok (“Games”) by Gyorgy Kurtag, composer-in-residence.
Aimard combines muscular expression with delicate intensity, teasing out Bach’s complex lines and allowing the music to dance.
The audience in this English seaside town sat enthralled, as if collectively stunned by a most Gallic coup de foudre.
Until 29 June. www.aldeburgh.co.uk.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
