Third Suite for Cello, Op. 87
- Instrumentation
- Cello
- Composed
- 1971
- Duration
- 22'
- Publisher
- Faber Music
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About this piece
Britten's last suite, written in 1971 after hearing Rostropovich play the Bach suites, is built on four Russian themes: three folk-song arrangements by Tchaikovsky and the Kontakion (the Orthodox hymn for the departed), which are only stated plainly at the very end of the closing Passacaglia, Beethoven's Razumovsky quartets being the obvious precedent. Nine movements run without pause. Rostropovich premiered it in December 1974; Julian Lloyd Webber made the first recording in 1979. Sold by Faber in the collected Three Suites volume.
Technical overview
Wide range of character writing: a Marcia, a Barcarolla, a two-voice Dialogo, a fugue, a 'fantastico' recitative, a Presto moto perpetuo and a slow Passacaglia.