BBC SSO at Aldeburgh Festival 2026 Aldeburgh Festival 2026: Welcome to the Orchestra

A rip-roaring tour of the orchestra and a Welcome to Ipswich: two of Britten’s most joyful and energetic works.

In the last two years of his life, Britten experienced an astonishing burst of creativity. From chamber pieces to songs to a full-blown cantata, he wrote some of his most enduringly popular and vigorous works while seriously weakened by illness. Welcome Ode was his final work, composed for the Queen’s visit to Ipswich in her Jubilee Year in 1977. Scored for children’s voices and orchestra, it is one of his most uninhibitedly upbeat works, with a delightfully outdoorsy spirit.

Another work for young people is Britten’s dazzling Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, which is what it says on the tin: a comprehensive look at every participant in a symphony orchestra. Each instrument gets a go at the tune by Purcell on which the piece is based, sometimes solo, sometimes in intriguing combinations. Britten was reportedly so thrilled with the first recording of this work that he bounced up and down with excitement. You may find yourself doing the same – especially at the prospect of a new narration for the work, from eminent actor Rory Kinnear.

This performance will welcome an audience of young people from local schools and communities, with limited tickets available on general sale.