Britten's Solo Cello Suites
Britten's Solo Cello Suites
The Gramophone Choice
Solo Cello Suites Nos 1 & 2. Cello Sonata, Op 65
Mstislav Rostropovich vc Benjamin Britten pf
Decca London 421 859-2LM (68' · ADD) Recorded 1961-69. Buy from Amazon
This is a classic recording of the Cello Sonata, with Rostropovich and Britten playing with an authority impossible to surpass, and is here coupled with the unaccompanied First and Second Cello Suites. The suggestive, often biting humour masks darker feelings. However, Britten manages, just, to keep his devil under control. Rostropovich’s and Britten’s characterisation in the opening Dialogo is stunning and their subdued humour in the Scherzo-pizzicato also works well. In the Elegia and the final Moto perpetuo, again, no one quite approaches the passion and energy of Rostropovich. This work, like the two Suites, was written for him and he still remains the real heavyweight in all three pieces. Their transfer to CD is remarkably successful; it’s difficult to believe that these recordings were made in the 1960s.
Additional Recommendation
Solo Cello Suites Nos 1-3
Jean-Guihen Queyras vc
Harmonia Mundi Les Nouveaux Interprètes HMN91 1670 (65' · DDD) Buy from Amazon
Britten’s three Cello Suites have all the strength of musical character to sustain a permanent place in the repertory. Inspired by the personality and technique of Mstislav Rostropovich, they’re remarkable for the way in which they acknowledge yet at the same time distance themselves from the great precedent of Bach’s Cello Suites. The best performers (like Rostropovich himself, though he never recorded No 3) are equally at ease with the music’s Bach-like contrapuntal ingenuity and its lyric intensity, where Britten’s own most personal voice is heard. Queyras has such a fine sense of phrase that his slower speeds do not sound unconvincing, and his technically superb playing has an impressive consistency of style. The quality of the recording is another plus, with the close focus needed to ensure that all the details tell. The only disappointment came in the final track, with the Russian Prayer for the Dead that ends Suite No 3. Here, of all places, Queyras is simply too fast. Nevertheless, this lapse isn’t so great as to deprive the disc of a place in these recommendations.
