1 Mikrokosmos
Pierre-Laurent Aimard brings his years as the Aldeburgh festival’s artistic director to a close by leading a performance of the 153 pieces that make up the 20th century’s greatest pedagogical collection for pianists, Bartók’s Mikrokosmos. A group of children play the beginners’ pieces, before Aimard and his colleagues take over for the challenging later ones.
Snape Maltings Concert Hall, nr Saxmundham, Sun
2 The Hogboon
Peter Maxwell Davies died in March, leaving his final major work unperformed. It’s an opera based on an Orkney legend, and Simon Rattle conducts the LSO in the stage premiere.
3 Deep Minimalism
Described as “music that takes its time”, deep minimalism is the title of a festival that brings together composers who explore the immersive properties of sound and its power to evoke meditative states. Saturday includes works by Galina Ustvolskaya and Pauline Oliveros, and Sunday has premieres of Laurie Spiegel and Meredith Monk.
St John’s Smith Square, SW1, Sat & Sun
4 Schubert At Syde
Cheltenham music festival begins next week. But this two-day mini-festival of Schubert’s songs and chamber music – with tenor James Gilchrist, pianist Anna Tilbrook, cellist Guy Johnston and the Carducci Quartet – provides an appetiser.
Syde Manor, Cheltenham, Fri & 2 Jul
5 Lichfield festival
On the centenary of the Battle of the Somme, the opening concert here from Manchester Camerata pays tribute with the world premiere of Deborah Pritchard’s trumpet concerto, Seven Halts On The Somme.
