Solo Cello Suites Nos. 1-3
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BENJAMIN BRITTEN
Solo Cello Suites Nos. 1-3
Jamie Walton (cello)
[ Signum / CD ]
Release Date: Monday 17 June 2013
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Joining several discs from Signum celebrating Britten's Centenary Year in 2013 comes the three Suites for Solo Cello, performed by star UK cellist Jamie Walton. Recorded in the Britten Studio at Snape Maltings, Aldeburgh, the three suites were dedicated to Mstislav Rostropovich, with the passionate third in particular inspired by Rostropovich's rich and romantic performances of Bach's unaccompanied suites.
"All three Suites offer an array of musical character pieces, as one might expect from the man who made his mark, in 1937, with his Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge. With a recording that delivers the intimacy of a house concert, Walton offers a veritable gallery of characters. He plucks up images of Spain in the First Suite's Serenata, followed by a ghostly march that affectionately nods to Prokofiev.
These works, which can easily be a succession of isolated movements, have a gripping continuity.
The Declamato that opens the Second Suite is an eloquent karanga that draws you into a 19-minute journey, ending with Walton's brilliant Ciaccona, in which Britten pays homage to the great Bach Chaconne. The Third Suite, written in 1971, was not performed for three years as Rostropovich had been detained in Russia. Walton catches the intense emotions running close to the surface as Britten incorporated various pieces of Russian music. A tender Lento leads into an edgy march and, eventually, a Barcarolle that (was a pun intended?) contemplates Bach's very first Prelude. The emotional climax comes in the most poignant of Britten's Fugues which, in Walton's radiant performance, is the highlight." (William Dart NZ Herald)
"I greatly enjoy Walton's at times almost teasing playfulness with Britten's solo masterpieces, and in terms of technique and impressive expressive depth he ticks pretty much all the boxes." (MusicWeb Oct 2013)
