Britten: Cello Suites Pieter Wispelwey

• Benjamin Britten (1913 - 1976): Cello Suite No 1, Op. 72:
• 1 Britten: Cello Suite No. 1, Op. 72: Canto primo: Sostenuto e largamente 02:37
• 2 Britten: Cello Suite No. 1, Op. 72: I. Fuga - Andante moderato 04:29
• 3 Britten: Cello Suite No. 1, Op. 72: II. Lamento - Lento rubato 02:51
• 4 Britten: Cello Suite No. 1, Op. 72: Canto secundo - Sostenuto 01:16
• 5 Britten: Cello Suite No. 1, Op. 72: III. Serenata - Allegretto pizzicato 02:30
• 6 Britten: Cello Suite No. 1, Op. 72: IV. Marcia - Alla marcia moderato 04:20
• 7 Britten: Cello Suite No. 1, Op. 72: Canto terzo - Sostenuto 02:15
• 8 Britten: Cello Suite No. 1, Op. 72: V. Bordone - Moderato quasi recitativo 03:04
• 9 Britten: Cello Suite No. 1, Op. 72: VI. Moto Perpetuo E Canto Quatro: Presto 03:48
• Cello Suite No. 2, Op. 80: I. Declamato:
• 10 Britten: Cello Suite No. 2, Op. 80: I. Declamato - Largo 03:42
• 11 Britten: Cello Suite No. 2, Op. 80: II. Fuga - Andante 03:47
• 12 Britten: Cello Suite No. 2, Op. 80: IV. Scherzo - Allegro molto 02:01
• 13 Britten: Cello Suite No. 2, Op. 80: V. Andante lento 05:32
• 14 Britten: Cello Suite No. 2, Op. 80: VI. Ciaccona - Allegro 07:15
• Cello Suite No. 3, Op. 87:
• 15 Britten: Cello Suite No. 3, Op. 87: I. Introduzione - Lento 02:43
• 16 Britten: Cello Suite No. 3, Op. 87: II. Marcia - Allegro 01:47
• 17 Britten: Cello Suite No. 3, Op. 87: III. Canto - Con Moto 01:11
• 18 Britten: Cello Suite No. 3, Op. 87: IV. Barcarolla - Lento 02:08
• 19 Britten: Cello Suite No. 3, Op. 87: V. Dialogo - Allegretto 01:44
• 20 Britten: Cello Suite No. 3, Op. 87: VI. Fuga - Andante espressivo 02:14
• 21 Britten: Cello Suite No. 3, Op. 87: VII. Recitativo - Fantastico 01:28
• 22 Britten: Cello Suite No. 3, Op. 87: VIII. Moto perpetuo - Presto 00:54
• 23 Britten: Cello Suite No. 3, Op. 87: IX. Passacaglia - Lento solenne 09:33
• Total Runtime 01:13:09

Info for Britten: Cello Suites

Benjamin Britten’s three Cello Suites rank among the most important solo works for the instrument since Bach. Written for Mstislav Rostropovich, they unite references to early music traditions with a distinctly modern voice, combining formal mastery, dramatic imagination and profound emotional depth. In this recording, Pieter Wispelwey brings his new reading of a 45 year long engagement with these remarkable works for cello solo.

Benjamin Britten is one of the most striking figures among 20th century composers. His works prove that it is possible to compose moving, amusing, and poignant music, while exclusively employing the system of tonality and evading the use of serial, aleatoric and aleatoric techniques. Britten made highly eclectic use of the achievements of western musical culture.

Pieter Wispelwey, cello

Pieter Wispelwey
is equally at ease on the modern or period cello. His acute stylistic awareness, combined with a truly original interpretation and a phenomenal technical mastery, has won the hearts of critics and public alike in repertoire ranging from JS Bach to Schnittke, Elliott Carter and works composed for him.

Highlights of the 16-17 season include a play-direct project with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, a performance of the complete Bach suites at Auditorium de Lyon and the City Recital Hall in Sydney, performances of Tavener’s Svyati with the Flanders Radio Choir and two recitals at King’s Place in London as part of their ‘Cello Unwrapped’ season. Pieter will also give series of extraordinary recitals at the Melbourne Recital Centre as part their Great Performer Series, where he will perform the complete Bach Suites, Beethoven’s complete works for cello and piano, and the two cello sonatas by Brahms over the course of three consecutive evenings.

Pieter Wispelwey enjoys chamber music collaborations and regular duo partners include pianists Cédric Tiberghien and Alasdair Beatson and he appears as a guest artist with a number of string quartets including the Australian String Quartet.

Wispelwey’s career spans five continents and he has appeared as soloist with many of the world’s leading orchestras including the Boston Symphony, Dallas Symphony, St Paul’s Chamber Orchestra, NHK Symphony, Yomiuri Nippon, Tokyo Philharmonic, Sapporo Symphony, Sydney Symphony, London Philharmonic, Hallé Orchestra, BBC Symphony, BBC Scottish Symphony, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Academy of Ancient Music, Gewandhaus Orchester Leipzig, Danish National Radio Symphony, Budapest Festival Orchestra and Camerata Salzburg. Conductor collaborations include Ivan Fischer, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Herbert Blomstedt, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Jeffrey Tate, Kent Nagano, Sir Neville Marriner, Philippe Herreweghe, Vassily Sinaisky, Vladimir Jurowski, Louis Langrée, Marc Minkowski, Ton Koopman and Sir Roger Norrington.

With regular recital appearances in London (Wigmore Hall), Paris (Châtelet, Louvre), Amsterdam (Concertgebouw, Muziekgebouw), Brussels (Bozar), Berlin (Konzerthaus), Milan (Societta del Quartetto), Buenos Aires (Teatro Colon), Sydney (The Utzon Room), Los Angeles (Walt Disney Hall) and New York (Lincoln Center), Wispelwey has established a reputation as one of the most charismatic recitalists on the circuit

In 2012 Wispelwey celebrated his 50th birthday by embarking on a project showcasing the Bach Cello Suites. He recorded the complete Suites for the third time, released on the label ‘Evil Penguin Classics’. The box set also includes a DVD featuring illustrated debates on the interpretation of the Bach Suites with eminent Bach scholars Laurence Dreyfus and John Butt. A major strand of his recital performances is his performances of the complete suites during the course of one evening, an accomplishment that has attracted major critical acclaim throughout Europe and the US. “On paper it is a feat requiring brilliance, stamina and perhaps a bit of hubris. In practice Mr. Wispelwey proved himself impressively up to the challenge, offering performances as eloquent as they were provocative” ( New York Times).

Pieter Wispelwey’s impressive discography of over 20 albums, available on Channel Classic, Onyx and Evil Penguin Classics, has attracted major international awards. His most recent concerto release features the C.P.E. Bach’s Cello Concerto in A major with the Musikkollegium Winterthur, whilst he is also midway through an imaginative project to record the complete duo repertoire of Schubert and Brahms. Other recent releases include Lalo’s Cello Concerto, Saint-Saen’s Concerto no.2 and the Britten Cello Symphony with Seikyo Kim and the Flanders Symphony Orchestra, Walton’s Cello Concerto (Sydney Symphony/Jeffrey Tate), Prokofiev’s Symphonie Concertante (Rotterdam Philharmonic/Vassily Sinaisky.

Born in Haarlem, The Netherlands, Wispelwey’ studied with Dicky Boeke and Anner Bylsma in Amsterdam and later with Paul Katz in the USA and William Pleeth in the UK.

Pieter Wispelwey plays on a 1760 Giovanni Battista Guadagnini cello and a 1710 Rombouts baroque cello.

Booklet for Britten: Cello Suites