I did – just – manage to update CT’s concert directory in time for June a few days ago. However, I also wanted to point out a few festivals that take place this month, especially since, on the whole, I have not included their concerts in that listing. I would have done this yesterday, but instead watched the rather splendid barge procession on the Thames, a day dampened only slightly by the bad weather and the disappointing TV coverage. I was especially surprised that the BBC didn’t seem to have thought of putting a microphone on any of the music barges. I didn’t catch any of the New Water Music.
There are couple of interesting festivals on the continent this month. The first, the KunstFestSpiele Art and Drama Festival, is already underway, but continues until 17th June. Taking place in the beautiful Royal Gardens of Herrenhausen, Hanover, there is much to enjoy in the rest of the festival, including the BBC Singers performing Britten, Bitwistle and Stevie Wishart on 7th June; the pianist Marino Formenti playing Liszt, Kurtag, Pesson, Nancarrow and Rihm on 9th June and Evelyn Glennie performing new works with the Tapei Chinese Orchestra on 17th. The short Zeit Für Neue Musik festival takes place in the Kammermusiksaal der Firma Steingraeber & Söhne, Bayreuth from 21st June to 24th and includes works by Cage, Andriessen, Ligeti. Tober-Vogt, Bartok and others.
In the UK, the St. Magnus International Festival runs from 22nd to 27th June. It includes the chance to hear Marc Neikrug’s harrowing Through Roses and Maxwell Davies’ Miss Donnithorne’s Maggot on the first day; Davies’ Ojai Festival Overture, Alasdair Nicholson’s Backward Glances on 23rd; Distance and Enchantment by Judith Weir, dansmusik by Alasdair Nicolson on 24th; and the world premiere of a new work by Arne Gieshoff on 26th and of Paul Crabtree’s Utopian Visions on 27th. The Aldeburgh Festival, finally, runs from 8th-24th June. Highlights include Oliver Knussens’s Where the Wild Things Are and Higglety Pigglety Pop! on 8th June and, on various dates, premieres by Elspeth Brooke, Jonathan Dove, Oliver Knussen, Kurtag, Barnabas Dukay, Carter and even the European premiere of a Charles Ives’ work, his vast, unconventially orchestrated and unfinished Universe Symphony. The complete programme can be viewed here.