Snape Maltings have announced their largest year-round programme of concerts and events to date.
The Winter 2017/Spring 2018 programme includes leading artists and ensembles including Mitsuko Uchida, Angelika Kirchschlager, English Touring Opera, Ute Lemper, Håkan Hardenberger & Colin Currie, Tenebrae, Nicola Benedetti and Mark Padmore.
The annual Christmas Weekend will feature concerts and activities for both children and adults and in Spring, Bach’s B minor mass and Handel’s Theodora over Easter Weekend.
Leading Artists and Ensembles at Snape Maltings
Concerts in November include chanteuse Ute Lemper bringing Berlin cabaret, Parisian chansons and Argentinian tango on Friday 10 November 2017 whilst virtuoso trumpet and percussion duo Håken Hardenberger & Colin Currie with Britten-Pears Young Artists perform music by Harrison Birtwistle, Britten, Joe Duddell and Steve Reich on Saturday 11th November 2017. That evening Tenebrae gives a concert of remembrance conducted by Nigel Short including Tavener’s anthem Song for Athene, Howell’s elegy Take Him, Earth, for Cherishing alongside music by Judith Bingham Elgar, Gurney, Parry, Schoenberg and Vaughan Williams.
Violinist Nicola Benedetti performs an unaccompanied Bach and Ysaÿe recital on Sunday 11th March 2018. The week continues with tenor Mark Padmore performing songs by Schubert, Britten and Vaughan Williams, with pianist Julius Drake and violist Krzysztof Chorzelski on Thursday 15th March 2018.
Friday Afternoons
This year’s Big Sing celebrates the UK-wide and international singing project Friday Afternoons on Friday 17th November 2017. It was originally conceived as the culmination of the worldwide 2013 centenary celebrations and takes its name from songs the composer Benjamin Britten wrote for his brother’s school to sing every Friday. Each year Friday Afternoons commissions a new set of songs, over time creating a significant resource of songs especially written for young people’s voices.
This year’s Big Sing is led by 15 musicians from the Voces Cantabiles Music Foundation, including internationally renowned a cappella ensembles VOCES8 and Apollo5 plus their scholars. As well as performances by the professionals, the day will include the traditional massed singing in the Snape Maltings Concert Hall with almost 800 children from 21 schools in Suffolk in attendance, including primary, high and special educational needs schools. There will also be workshops using the Friday Afternoons resources as a starting point and then encouraging the young people to respond creatively.
Christmas Weekend Friday 15th – Sunday 17th December
This year’s Christmas Weekend opens with Fantasia on Christmas Carols performing seasonal classical favourites by Aldeburgh Voices and The Suffolk Ensemble on Friday 15th December.
On Saturday, Father Christmas sails into Snape Maltings by Thames barge (approx. 12.30pm) with the opportunity for children to meet him afterwards. BBC Radio Suffolk’s Carol Concert in aid of BBC Children in Need at 4pm celebrates the festive season with music, readings from BBC Radio Suffolk presenters and a chance to join in. In the evening (7.30pm), acclaimed Norwich Cathedral Choir perform music by Britten, Tavener, John Rutter.
The weekend concludes with two Christmas classics – the film screening of The Snowman featuring live choir and orchestra and a musical meeting with the ever-popular Paddington, and the narrated tale – with orchestra – of Paddington Bear’s First Concert (Sunday, 2pm & 4pm).
Easter Weekend, Good Friday 30th – Saturday 31st March 2018
The Gabrieli Consort and Players mark Good Friday with Bach’s monumental B minor mass whilst the freshness and invention of music by Haydn and Dvorák performed by the Albion Quartet, herald the Spring and the new life of Easter Sunday.
On Saturday 31st March, the Britten-Pears Baroque Orchestra and singers of the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme perform Handel’s Theodora: a tale of martyrdom and loyalty in the early Church. Earlier in the day, Aldeburgh Voices along with Fellows of the National Youth Choir of Great Britain and The Suffolk Ensemble perform a programme centering around James MacMillan’s Seven Last Words from the Cross. It is preceded by Mozart’s Adagio and Fugue and Avro Pärt’s I am the vine.
Development of Young Artists
The development of young artists has always been central to Snape Maltings’ vision and throughout the season visiting artists provide masterclasses for those on the Britten-Pears Young Artists Programme: Håken Hardenberger & Colin Currie from Tuesday 7th until Friday 10th November 2017 focus on works for trumpet and percussion of the 20th and 21st Century; and mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly and conductor & harpsichordist Christian Curnyn throughout the week commencing Monday 26th March 2018, preparing Handel’s Theodora.
Aldeburgh Young Musicians is an artist development programme for advanced young musicians and composers aged 8-18. In October in the week leading up to the Britten Weekend, AYM will spend a week crafting their own music for radio and perform extracts in a concert on Saturday 28th October 2017.
Chamber Music in Residence is designed to offer a flexible, intensive study period, mentored by leading teachers in inspiring surroundings. For more than 25 years, young string quartets and chamber ensembles have come to Snape Maltings for a series of Friday Lunchtime Concerts. This includes the Ducasse Trio (12th & 19th January); Mettis Quartet (26th January & 2nd February), Alauda Quartet (9th & 16th February); Improviso (23rd February & 2nd March). North Sea Ensemble (9th & 16th March) and the Albion Quartet (23rd March).
Tickets for all concerts and events can be booked online at www.snapemaltings.co.uk or by calling the Box Office on 01728 687110