Today, Rob did a bit of financial housekeeping on the netbook while I wandered up and down the high Street in Aldeburgh, to look at the shops.
In the evening we went off to the Snape Maltings concert hall again, to a program of Britten, Harrison Birtwistle and Schumann. This concert was sung by tenor Mark Padmore, accompanied by pianist Andrew West (who was a replacement pianist). The one listed in the program unfortunately couldn't perform.
Prior to the concert we attended a pre concert talk about the Birtwistle piece. It was called Songs of Same Earth, which is a series of poems written by poet David Harsent, set to music by Harrison Birtwistle. Birtwistle is a distinguished English composer who started out studying the clarinet but eventually sold them all so he could devote all his efforts to composition. The talk by Birtwistle and Harsent was very interesting, and put the music into context, when we heard it in the performance. Mark Padmore did a brilliant job with what was exceedingly difficult music. This was the world premiere of the Piece. Mark also sang songs by Britten and the Schumann Dichterliebe.
