Pianist Clare Hammond makes two appearances in her return to the Aldeburgh Festival this year where she gives the world premieres of two new works by composers John Hopkins and Graham Fitkin.
Her solo recital on the 13th June features a programme of rarely-heard works from composers from the last century, including Doreen Carwithen and Elisabeth Lutyens, two contemporaries of Benjamin Britten, prolific African-American composer William Grant Still, and exiled Russian composer Nikolai Medtner. The recital also includes the world premiere of John Hopkins’s Corona di Sonetti, a new work written for Clare that is based on the repeating lines in a crown of sonnets.
On the 16th June Clare joins pianists Graham Fitkin, Ruth Wall, and Kathryn Stott to give the world premiere of Fitkin’s new work for two pianos and eight hands, samplers, and spoken voice, entitled Bla Bla Bla. The programme celebrates the diversity of music built from minimal materials, and also features more intimate solo and duo contributions from each pianist. The same quartet will tour the work in the autumn, performing together at the Southbank Centre and in Reading, Oxford, Cornwall, Cambridge, Cardiff and Glasgow.
Clare has given the world premieres of over 50 works throughout her career, including those of major works by composers Kenneth Hesketh, Arlene Sierra, Robert Saxton, and Michael Berkeley. She has also released eight albums of music by a living composer, including a disc of 20th- and 21st-century Variations by Hindemith, Szymanowski, Copland, Helmut Lachenmann, Harrison Birtwistle, Sofia Gubaidulina, and John Adams, described as “dazzling”, “Hammond keeps us enthralled to the last bar”, and “a questing, highly intelligent pianist…stunningly recorded at the height of her powers”.
More information on Clare's current projects can be found here. Tickets to the Southbank Centre concert can be found here.
