Cello Suites (Britten)

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The Cello Suites by Benjamin Britten (opp. 72, 80, and 87) are a series of three compositions for solo cello, dedicated to Mstislav Rostropovich. They are late works: Britten wrote them in 1964, 1967 and 1971, respectively.

Britten wrote the first suite at the end of 1964. While it was one of many works he dedicated to Rostropovich, it was not the first time he had written him music for unaccompanied cello: earlier in 1964 he had composed Rostropovich a cadenza for Joseph Haydn's Cello Concerto in C major.

The second suite dates from the summer of 1967, and the last suite, considered by Phillip Brett to be the most passionate of the three ^[1], was inspired by Rostropovich's playing of the unaccompanied cello suites of Bach. It incorporates four Russian themes, reminiscent of Beethoven's use of Russian themes in the Razumovsky quartets. The final Russian tune, stated simply at the end of the set, is the Kontakion, the Russian Orthodox Hymn for the Dead.

The premieres of the three suites were all given by Rostropovich. The first he played for the first time at Aldeburgh, on 27 June 1965; the second, at Snape Maltings, on 17 June 1968; and the last of the three, also at Snape Maltings, on 21 December 1974.