Britten’s suites for solo cello are not perhaps an easy listen any more than they are easy to play, but Jamie Walton’s absorbing performances of all three seem to expose and explore the emotional ...

Despite the cold war, Britten developed an important circle of Russian-Soviet friendships in the early 1960s, among whom was the great cellist Mstislav Rostropovich. After hearing "Slava" play the ...

Orchestral music from three successive decades of Britten's career is brought together here, but the real interest comes with the work from the 1960s, the Cello Symphony, which remains one of ...

The Cello Suites came at a crossroads in Britten’s career. He had started writing more instrumental music after a long period concentrating primarily on vocal repertoire of one sort or another, a fact ...

Benjamin Britten's three suites for solo cello were written for the great Russian Mstislav Rostropovich – the two men managed to sustain a deep creative relationship in spite of the Cold War politics ...

Years ago I bought an lp of the great Russian cellist Mstislav Rostropovich on which he performed Benjamin Britten’s Cello Suites 1 & 2. It was truly stunning, both the composition and performance. A ...

Coincidentally, Norwegian cellist Amalie Stalheim has recently been loaned a Guadagnini cello once owned by Mstislav Rostropovich. So while it’s a Ruggieri from 1687 that you hear on her recording of ...

Benjamin Brittens three solo suites, originally written for Mstislav Rostropovich, are among the most underrated and beautiful compositions in the cello repertoire. Please join me on the evening of ...

In homage to Bach, Benjamin Britten originally planned to write six cello suites for his friend Rostropovich, but was able to complete only three before his death in 1976. They remain masterpieces of ...

The music world’s obsession with anniversaries means that this year we shall not be short of discs and performances of Benjamin Britten (born 1913), nor indeed of Wagner and Verdi (born 1813). None of ...