French music features prominently in this year's Aldeburgh festival; of the three concerts during the first full day, two were entirely devoted to it. The first offered much that was unfamiliar: a programme of baroque music, billed as a recital by Ian Bostridge and harpsichordist Emmanuelle Haïm, but equally involving three of Haïm's colleagues from Le Concert d'Astrée.
It began with the sound of Eric Bellocq's lute floating into the airy space of Blythburgh church; later, in Marin Marais's instrumental Badinage he and the viol player Philippe Pierlot conjured up strange and deceptively modern noises. Bostridge was an engaging soloist in songs and arias encompassing folk-like simplicity and florid ornamentation, and will be even more so when he no longer needs to use a score. By the end we reached the beginnings of great French opera, with all five musicians joined for an excerpt from Rameau's Orphée. It was hard not to smile when Haïm introduced another Marais piece saying: "You'll probably recognise this." But, if she has her way, maybe in a few years we will.
Saturday evening's concert in the Maltings covered more well-trodden ground, starting with an extrovert performance of Poulenc's Flute Sonata by Emily Beynon and Roger Vignoles. Joan Rodgers was the soloist in several song collections, but only in Poulenc's La Courte Paille did she seem completely relaxed. However, Pascal Moraguès's two clarinet solos had easy expressivity, and were this bitty programme's unlikely highlight.
On paper, Sunday evening's concert by the Philharmonia under Thierry Fischer seemed fragmentary, too, but it worked. We were still very much in French territory with the muted strings and plangent winds of Britten's Quatre Chansons Françaises, a teenage score of remarkable maturity, gleamingly sung by Janice Watson. The timpanist Hans-Kristian Kjos Sorensen was game for all the tricks that the festival's featured composer, Mauricio Kagel, could throw at him in his frenetic Konzertstück, though Kagel couldn't decide whether to take the instrument seriously; if all his works had such cheesy comedy endings we would be in for a very long fortnight.
But it was the two fiendishly difficult piano showpieces by Liszt - the Totentanz and the Grand Fantasie Symphonique - that formed the evening's centrepiece. Louis Lortie, a dazzling, fiery soloist, rarely seemed even close to the limits of his ability. To finish with an overture, Berlioz's Carnaval Romain, was strange but, with the Philharmonia at last the centre of attention, it made an exuberant sign-off.
· Festival continues until June 22. Box office: 01728 687110.
