Edinburgh International Festival
Various venues, 3rd to 27th August
The Edinburgh International Festival is giving the Proms a run for its money this year. Try Martyn Brabbins and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra performing Vaughan Williams’s stirring A Sea Symphony; or Sheku Kanneh-Mason, fresh from the royal wedding, playing Elgar’s Cello Concerto. Soloists include violinists Nicola Benedetti, James Ehnes and Viktoria Mullova, and pianists Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Piotr Anderszewski, while lovers of early music shouldn’t miss Handel’s Samson. The festival opens with a performance of Haydn’s joyous Creation conducted by festival favourite Edward Gardner.
Three Choirs Festival
Venues around Hereford, 28th July to 4th August
It’s Hereford’s turn to host the annual Three Choirs Festival—a week of concerts and events that offers so much more than just choral music. Works by female composers take centre stage with performances of music by Lili Boulanger and Ethel Smyth’s glorious Mass in D. There are solo recitals by harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani and organist Olivier Latry, as well as performances by top ensembles Tenebrae and the Binchois Consort. And don’t miss a performance of Monteverdi’s 1610 Vespers.
National Youth Choir at Snape Maltings
Snape Maltings, 27th August
Under conductor Ben Parry, the National Youth Choir are a truly fearless and thrilling ensemble. This month they visit Suffolk’s lovely Snape Maltings—the concert hall built by Benjamin Britten—with an unusual programme of works created by those suffering from mental illness. At the heart of the concert is Britten’s own setting of Christopher Smart’s asylum vision Rejoice in the Lamb, which sits among music by Ravel, Rachmaninoff and Nico Muhly.
