Britten Sinfonia rock Latitude festival

27 July 2012, 10:43 | Updated: 27 July 2012, 10:47

After Lang Lang’s grandstanding performance at Latitude, the Britten Sinfonia show us pictures of their own concert with veteran songwriter Van Dyke Parks

The Britten Sinfonia performed an unusual show at the Latitude Festival recently, accompanying the veteran pop songwriter Van Dyke Parks. Parks, who co-wrote the Beach Boys’ seminal ‘Smile’ album, was joined by a small number of musicians from the ensemble for renditions of songs from his back-catalogue.

Together, they performed a career retrospective set similar to one they performed in a recent Barbican show that featured contributions from indie-pop singers Robin Pecknold and Daniel Rossen.

After Lang Lang wowed the Latitude crowd earlier the same day (view pictures), it seems that classical music is now a firm fixture on the festival circuit. Increasingly, classical artists are taking prestigious slots at major festivals, possibly part of a wider effort to diversify festival programming.

Latitude also featured performances from Hahn-Bin, Matthew Bourne’s Sadler’s Wells dancers and a host of poetry, spoken-word and comedy. You can view more pictures of the Britten Sinfonia at the festival on the Britten Sinfonia blog.