Conductor and pianist known for his work with Benjamin Britten, he conducted the world
premiere of Death in Venice and was artistic director of the Aldeburgh Festival for 24 years.

Bedford was working at Glyndebourne when, at the end of the 1966 festival, he was asked to play for a group of singers who were auditioning for Britten’s English Opera Group (EOG). “Although I was accompanying some excellent people, it was I who was asked to join the company,” he recalled with astonishment.

Britten then asked him to be assistant conductor for a recording of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. He recalled how even during a busy festival Britten took the time to go through the music in the Red House library, a barn converted into a studio.

His conducting debut with the EOG came in Britten’s realisation of The Beggar’s Opera at Sadler’s Wells in 1967, which he also took to Expo ’67 in Montreal.

Over the next decade Bedford continued to work with the EOG, conducting not only Britten’s operas but also Mozart’s Idomeneo in 1973. That same year he conducted the first stage performance of Owen Wingrave, closely followed by the premiere of Death in Venice at the Aldeburgh Festival when Britten was no longer well enough.

He also took both these operas to Covent Garden that year. His recording of Death in Venice, with Peter Pears, John Shirley-Quirk and James Bowman in the roles they created, was made at Snape the following year.

In 1976 he made a studio recording of Paul Bunyan, before the first British stage performance at Aldeburgh that summer. At the festival, the last before Britten’s death, he also conducted the premiere of Britten’s cantata Phaedra, with Janet Baker in the title role and the English Chamber Orchestra.

In 1973 Britten and Bedford played a Schubert piano duet for the Queen Mother, patron of the Aldeburgh Festival.

Steuart John Rudolf Bedford was born in Hendon, north London, the son of Leslie Bedford and his wife Lesley (née Duff) who sang in the original production of Britten’s opera Albert Herring. His grandparents included Herbert Bedford, a composer, painter and author, and Liza Lehmann, who wrote Edwardian parlour ballads, notably There are Fairies at the Bottom of my Garden. Steuart was related to the writer Rosamond Lehmann. His brothers Peter and David became a singer and a composer respectively; both predeceased him.

The family had a summer cottage at Snape and were often in and out of Britten’s home. Bedford told of copying out music by Bach in the study and finding Peter Pears, Britten’s partner, a somewhat daunting figure. “I recall jaunts in their old Rolls, and picnics with them and my brothers,” he said.

He was educated at Lancing College, West Sussex and was awarded a piano scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music. Intent on being a cathedral organist, he was organ scholar at Worcester College, Oxford, but soon “got bitten by the operatic bug”. He conducted Albert Herring for the Oxford University Opera Club in 1964, receiving a congratulatory telegram from Britten on the opening night.

After Britten’s death in 1976 Bedford remained artistic director of the Aldeburgh Festival, helped on occasions by joint artistic directors, including composer Oliver Knussen. Although his performances and recordings were dominated by the music of Britten, he went on to conduct operas by other contemporary composers. He was also artistic director of the English Sinfonia during the 1980s.

In 2013, the Britten centenary year, he returned to Aldeburgh for a production of Peter Grimes that was staged on the beach, with Bedford conducting from a dug-out.

Two years later he triumphed at Garsington Opera, then based in Oxfordshire, with Death in Venice, 43 years after the premiere. “Today his interpretation is perfectly measured, catching all the score’s febrile anxiety as well as its brief arcs of glowing lyricism and its brilliantly characterised vignettes of the Venetian scene,” (The Daily Telegraph).

Steuart Bedford, who enjoyed golf and gardening, was appointed OBE in 2016. In 1969 he married Norma Burrowes, the Irish soprano, but that marriage was later dissolved. In 1980 he married Celia Harding. They had two daughters, both of whom are connected with the opera world. They moved to Yoxford and lived at Barnsdale in the High Street. Steuart died after complications from Parkinson’s disease.

Sources: obituaries in The Guardian, 2nd February 2021 and The Telegraph, 18th February 2021.