Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears established their young artists' programme at Snape exactly 40 years ago, and it has gone on to become even more wide-ranging in scope and international in its embrace. Choosing to mark the anniversary with a performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony – the embodiment of the aspiration to universal harmony – was emblematic. The young Britten-Pears Orchestra were joined by soloists Gillian Keith, Louise Innes, Daniel Norman and Matthew Rose – all former Britten-Pears alumni.
Yet conductor Antonello Manacorda made it clear from the outset that this wasn't an occasion for sentiment: his interpretation was brisk and incisive, with valveless trumpets and kettle drums hit with hard sticks helping to reinforce the sense of urgency in Beethoven's strongly rhythmic writing. Rose sprang from his seat with an air of impulsiveness that matched the arresting nature of the outburst Beethoven gives the bass soloist: the effect was of everything being stopped in its tracks with his incitement to the pursuit of joy. In their turn, the not-so-young chorus of Aldeburgh and London Voices responded warmly to the uplifting fervour of Schiller's ode.
As an ode to peace, Schönberg's Op 13 choral work Friede auf Erden ought to have been an ideal prelude to the Beethoven, all the more interesting for being rarely done. Moments of radiance offered the requisite parallel here but, standing on the threshold of the composer's journey into atonality, the highly chromatic writing poses a huge challenge to the chorus, and that showed rather too plainly here.
