In 1989 the LSO and Shell UK combined to give Alun Hoddinott a magnificent sixtieth birthday present, commissioning a work for Rostropovich and the orchestra. The result, nevertheless, is no jubilant celebration, but rather an acknowledgement of the inexorable passing of time, its title quoting the words in which Marlowe's Dr Faustus seeks to prolong the night and postpone the day of judgement. Hoddinott underlines this seriousness by sub-titling Noctis Equi ''poem for cello and orchestra'', rather than concerto. The solo part is not exactly simple, and the soloist plays almost constantly through the 21-minute composition, yet the intention is evidently to create an appropriate and memorable atmosphere, not to dazzle by means of display.
Noctis Equi is cast in one of Hoddinott's characteristically substantial single movements, a five-part structure alternating cantilenas and scherzos. There are some striking textural details, like the brief duet for pizzicato cello and a pair of horns in the second scherzo, but the tollings and chimings of the orchestral music are fairly muted in this recording. Fortunately, recording and performance do the music fullest justice during its best moments, the eloquent concluding Adagio, where Rostropovich brings his most magical feeling for phrasing and tone colour to bear on a melody which ascends to the heights while the orchestra sketches a tonal resolution.
Balancing the Hoddinott with two French concertos from the inter-war years certainly ensures an element of healthy contrast. The Milhaud is so light-weight that not even Rostropovich can pin it down for long enough to linger in the memory. The Honegger is far more worthwhile. The form of the first movement is too loose to carry much conviction, but the ideas are attractive and the two remaining movements, the finale hinting at the kind of robust neo-classicism Stravinsky would realize to perfection in his Violin Concerto a couple of years later, have much to commend them. The recording, made at EMI's Abbey Road studios, is generally efficient, although the muting of orchestral detail noted in the Hoddinott, and a sense of caution now and again in the other works, suggest that the sessions were as much familiarization exercises as fully-achieved performances.'